White Veil Occasions
by heavenhelpmyheart
Summary: Kurt had always thought the idea of seeing someone across a crowded subway platform and instantly knowing you have a connection with them was romantic and perfect. When the person you happen to lock eyes with is your ex-boyfriend and he's getting married in nine days, it's a little more complicated.
1. Across a Crowded Platform

Kurt rubbed his eyes blearily as he stared at his computer screen, reminding himself over and over again that he was doing this as a favor to Isabella. Not that he really had a choice, but it was still _technically_ a favor. She couldn't find anyone else to write a piece on such a horrendous new fashion statement that could be moderate, so she had delegated the task to Kurt, and after calling on several favors he was owed and being turned down by laughing interns, he decided just to write the damn article himself.

Thinking this was _not_ helping his cause.

Having been upgraded from lowly, coffee-fetching intern to one of Isabella's assortment of assistants had definitely come with a pay upgrade that he needed, but it had also come with a lot of new responsibilities, some of them much more unpleasant than getting coffee.

He looked over at the clock. 4:53. Seven minutes until he could leave Vogue headquarters, ride the subway into Brooklyn, climb the stairs to his studio apartment (stupid broken elevator from The Big Bang Theory, and stupid lazy super), and relax into a bubble bath in a moderately stable, claw-footed tub, ready to tackle the article again tomorrow. It wasn't due until the end of the week, but at the pace he had currently been suffering through, it might take him until the end of the month to finish.

By the time 5:00 rolled around, and Kameron (with a K, as she always reminded everyone) rang the big gong they had put in their wing as a joke, signaling the day had ended and everyone could go home if they didn't have any due dates coming up, Kurt was _literally_ pulling some strands of his hair out of his head. Not out of frustration (though he was feeling plenty of that), but because he needed something to do.

Kurt shut his company laptop as the sound of the gong reverberated around the wing. He wouldn't see Isabella until the end of the week (she was in Paris, covering some big event), so the article was really his only assignment. He had completely his normal work on Monday (it never took him very long. Hopefully, she would give him more pleasant responsibilities soon, or he would become _way_ too good at solitaire), and he didn't want to think about the article more, even if he should. He had never wanted to become one of those people that worked twelve hours, went home, ate, and then thought about or did more work. Sadly, that was exactly what he had become.

Yes, he loved fashion. He loved picking out clothes and even designing his own, keeping up with the latest trends and reading the most scathing reviews. Sadly, that wasn't what he did. He wrote fluff pieces on trends that were so beyond the realm of normal that even _he_ wouldn't wear them (and his sense of style had become even _more_ couture since high school). He liked his job, but it was the most boring portion of the fashion world he could imagine, besides sewing someone else's designs, and even that might be more interesting.

Since the weather seemed to have a sense of drama in New York City (in Lima, it focused more on irony), it was pouring rain when he got out of work. His umbrella, much like the umbrellas of most New Yorkers, was black, and it cast a dark shadow around him as he put it up under the glass ceiling that extended from the building before stepping out into the pouring rain. It was always tempting to turn right and get on the subway at the Times Square station, but he would have to switch trains twice if he did that. It was more realistic to walk the block or so that would take him to the train he would eventually end up on. Didn't make walking the extra few blocks any easier. Kurt hesitated. Going left, he would have to him walk two blocks to get on the M, which was the quickest way home. Going right, he would have to walk less than a block to get on the 7, which would route him to the N, which would then route him to the M.

He sighed, and turned right. Switching trains wasn't that bad in other areas of the city, and he hoped it wouldn't be here. He had never been so lazy or so frustrated that he was willing to get on the 7 instead of walking the extra two blocks to the M. But it was raining, and he'd had a long, lousy day, and it wasn't like he was in a hurry to get home.

As he stuck close to the buildings to avoid getting sprayed by cabbies, he rolled his eyes to think that he had once been excited to get on the subway every day. Back when he and Rachel were sharing an apartment, surviving NYADA together, they had hopped on the subway every day, bright-eyed and excited by the prospect of going to school, drinking coffee and staring at the other bleary-eyed passengers and thinking that New York was the most amazing city in the world and they were excited to head into Manhattan every day.

Now Kurt was relieved to be getting out of Manhattan. With the money he made in a higher position, he could have easily got an apartment in the city, live closer to his job and not have to come in by subway unless he wanted to. But he still lived out near Bushwick, while Rachel had moved into the city. He didn't see Rachel nearly as much as he had in college, even after she had moved in with some boyfriend or other. None of her relationships had lasted very long, but she kept trying. Kurt wasn't even sure who she was dating at that point.

The subway was also a great place to muse, Kurt decided as he descended the stairs into the busy Times Square station, being jockeyed this way and that by people in a greater hurry than he was. His train was set to come in any minute, so he waited patiently on the platform, trying his hand at people-watching. Mothers with crying babies, businessmen arguing on the phone in various languages, street performers trying to get cash out of people in one last song before they headed home for the day. Nothing out of the ordinary for New York City. So, he looked across the platform... and froze.

Blaine Anderson. He hadn't seen his ex-boyfriend since Blaine had asked Kurt to marry him after Regionals in 2013, and he had decided to get away from Lima for a long time. He occasionally visited Dad and Carole in Washington, D.C. (they had moved there permanently after Finn), but he didn't keep any other ties to his old life.

He always thought seeing someone across a crowded subway platform in New York City was a total cliché (slightly romantic, but extremely lame), and he had personally hoped it never happened to him. Turned out, fate had a sense of humor, because there was Blaine, standing across the subway platform, and the longer he looked, the more likely it was that Blaine would look over, but he couldn't seem to stop staring.

Blaine looked good. He was wearing less gel in his hair, and he still smiled at everyone like he wanted the world to be his friend. He was dressed in a business suit, which made Kurt wonder what he was up to, and he appeared to be alone, checking his watch every few seconds. He hadn't grown an inch, something Kurt was sure he was pretty upset about.

Suddenly, Blaine's eyes widened and his jaw dropped as they made eye contact across the platform. Kurt had changed a bit in the last four years since Blaine had last seen him. He was about an inch taller, had a new hairstyle (a few shades darker, too, because he could), and he had hidden his outlandish outfit under a long black coat, which only showed his green cut-denim jeans. Still, he was sure by Blaine's expression that he was perfectly recognizable.

Within moments, Blaine's shocked expression turned into a wide grin, and he waved across the platform just as the train came barreling in. As always, it came so fast, it seemed like it couldn't possibly stop, but at the last second it screeched to a halt.

Some section of Kurt's self-preservation (something New York had forced him to acquire) was hoping that Blaine was waiting for another train, but realistically he knew there _was_ no other train someone would already be on the platform for, and sure enough, when the doors opened, Kurt could see Blaine again through them. He mentally steeled himself for the bitch-out of a _lifetime_ when he stepped onto the train at almost the same time Blaine did, but he was pleasantly surprised when Blaine crossed the width of the train almost immediately to grab him in a hug.

"Kurt Hummel!" Blaine explained with a bright smile. "I haven't seen you since..." he faltered then for a moment, but he smiled again and persevered. "Well, I'm sure you remember the last time we saw one another about as well as I do. It feels like it was a million years ago." Kurt took that statement for what it was. A white flag. An olive branch. A 'let bygones be bygones.' A 'water under the bridge.' And he would be stupid not to accept it.

"Too many years," Kurt acknowledged as the doors closed and he was almost slammed into a pole as the train started to move.

"Come on, let's grab seats." Blaine, obviously still very much the same person he had known, grabbed his hand and pulled him into the closest space he could find that would hold two people. It _barely_ held two people, but it was workable, even if they were semi-lap-sitting.

It was when Blaine grabbed his hand that Kurt noticed. Blaine's hand was slightly wet, but that made sense. Everyone on the train was wet, it was pouring. It was the _cold_ that made him look down where Blaine had yet to let go. "Oh, my God," was his only reaction, because there were really no other words for it.

"Oh yeah," Blaine said with a shy smile, taking his hand back and unconsciously rubbing at it. "I always forget it's there until someone notices. It's weird," he said with a self-conscious little laugh. "It's not like it's new, but it still feels a little... alien, you know?"

"No," Kurt said honestly, holding up his own empty left hand.

"Oh," Blaine said, and now he sounded a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I just assumed because-"

"Not everyone's as lucky as you, Blaine," Kurt said, but he wasn't jealous. He wasn't angry. He was just... surprised. "So, what's his name?"

"Jonathan," Blaine said with a dreamy smile, still rubbing at the ring. Kurt didn't ask, but Blaine started telling. "We met at Columbia, sophomore year. We started dating second semester, and he asked me after graduation à la Legally Blonde. We're getting married in two weeks."

"Two weeks?" Kurt asked, because that was... soon. Very soon.

"Yeah," Blaine said, still sounding blissfully happy. "We rented this huge reception hall at 404 NYC, in Midtown. It's actually going to be a pretty big reception. I was against it, but Jonathan said that getting married was kind of a big deal for him. Plus, he needed to invite all of his co-workers and their families."

"Why?" Kurt asked, even though he kind of really didn't want to know.

"Well, he's an executive at his company, but they're uncertain about his... image, shall we say. They think it's unsuitable for someone in his position to be unmarried. They say it makes him seem flighty and irresponsible. If they come to our wedding, they'll be much more certain that he's fit for the job."

"And they don't have any objections to the... type of wedding?" Kurt asked gently, and Blaine laughed.

"No, there's not as much of a stigma as you would think," he admitted. He was still rubbing that ring. "What stop?" he asked as the train stopped for the third time.

"Intersection with N and S. You?"

"Queensboro Plaza to the N, then onto the F train on Lex," Blaine answered quickly. "Didn't we already pass that intersection?"

The announcer called out "5th Ave station," and Kurt let out a few swearwords Blaine had probably never heard him say before (some of which he had only learned recently thanks to the city). Thankfully, that only made his ex laugh.

"New plan?" Blaine asked.

"I'll ride with you to Queensboro Plaza, then ride the N back to the 34th street station to get on the M home," Kurt answered, looking at the map above Blaine's head to figure out his plan.

"Really? The M?" Blaine asked in surprise. "After everything you went through to get out of Lima, I thought you would be living in Manhattan."

"I found that Brooklyn is a little closer to my pace," Kurt admitted without shame. Blaine didn't seem to have anything to say to that, and they sat in silence until the stop at Grand Central Station. "So," he said finally, just wanting to break the uncomfortable silence, "what's with the suit?"

"Meeting with my agent," Blaine said, his voice still warm and friendly. "He likes it when I look professional." Blaine rolled his eyes at that.

"Agent?" Kurt asked, because he now realized he didn't even know what Blaine had gone to college for, never mind what he had actually ended up doing. The last time he had talked to Blaine, he was going to apply to NYADA, but things never quite worked out as high school students planned.

"Music," Blaine explained. "I have a bunch of demos, and I do a bunch of small shows, but I have two things simultaneously happening right now that could really start up my career. A CD deal that's pending, and the possibility of opening for Florence + the Machine on their next tour. If I could get both of those things to go through..."

"You would be the next overnight sensation," Kurt filled in the blank. "That's actually pretty awesome for you." And he was genuinely happy for Blaine.

"Thanks," Blaine said with a smile, finally dropping his hand. At least he had stopped rubbing at that ring. "How have you been?" he asked, and Kurt knew he wasn't just being polite. It was Blaine's nature to honestly care.

"Good," Kurt fibbed with a smile. "I'm still at Vogue, but I've been promoted _far_ beyond intern. I still live over in Brooklyn, but in a much nicer place." 'And I'm still single,' he wanted to add, but he didn't. It wasn't the right moment.

Blaine was living in Manhattan. Blaine was working in the music industry. Blaine was _engaged_. Everything had changed for Blaine in the four years they had been disconnected, but Kurt was pretty much the same person. A nicer place; a nicer job. That was about it.

"That's great," Blaine said brightly. He was staring at the ring. Still. Even though he had stopped absentmindedly rubbing it, he obviously hadn't stopped thinking about it. About _Jonathan_.

"So, tell me about your fiancé," Kurt said before his brain could really process how stupid saying that was.

"Well, he's a Columbia graduate, like me, but I told you that." Blaine seemed... nervous. Kurt couldn't blame him. "He's an insurance broker. He's from Florida, but all his family has settled on the West Coast and refused to move, with the exception of him." Blaine didn't seem sure what to say. Kurt couldn't blame him. "Um, he's a huge Broadway fan. Giant nerd, like me. Giant momma's boy," Blaine said with a chuckle. "He's... he's really sweet," Blaine said with a smile, but he wasn't looking at Kurt. He was looking at the floor. Like he didn't want to say that to Kurt's face.

"I-I'm happy for you." Blaine looked over at him with a raised eyebrow. Kurt couldn't blame him for being skeptical. His voice was shaking a bit. "Really," he said a little more securely. "He sounds like a great guy and... I'm glad you're happy," Kurt swallowed a bit of his pride to say that, but he was rewarded with a giant smile.

"Thanks, Kurt," Blaine said with a smile as the announcer called out that they were at 45th Road, Court House Square in Queens. Theirs was the next stop. "What about you?"

"What about me?" Kurt knew what Blaine was asking, but if he forced Blaine to articulate it, maybe he would get the hint that Kurt didn't want to talk about it.

"Is there anyone special in your life?" Blaine asked. No such luck.

"Ah, no," Kurt answered honestly, because fabricating a boyfriend was way too much effort. "Not since..." 'you asked me to marry you and I turned you down.' "Not for a while," Kurt censored himself.

"Oh." Now Blaine sounded uncomfortable. If only he had let it go. "I... I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Kurt said, and now _he_ was looking at the ring. It was gorgeous, if a little bit too feminine for Blaine's calloused hands. A _lot_ too feminine for Blaine. One _huge_ diamond in the middle, the kind of diamond that Kurt didn't want to think about the price tag of, asscher cut, clear and perfect (close enough, to the naked eye), and so sparkly it was stationary and still blinding. Then, of course, there were smaller diamonds on either side, and the band was thick, too perfect to be white gold. Platinum, maybe.

It was the Mac Daddy of engagement rings. Kurt could understand why Blaine liked staring at it.

They were both staring down at the ring in silence for about two minutes. Then the conductor called out Queensboro Plaza, and they had to get off the train.

"So, Midtown?" Kurt asked, because he had already asked about the fiancé. Might as well ask about the wedding.

"We looked at places in the Theater District, but they weren't as spacious, and the 404 is beautiful," Blaine said as they hopped onto the platform. They had to run across to get to the N train before the doors closed, and there were no seats available, so they both grabbed onto the overhead bar. "Like I said, it's going to be a rather huge reception, but a small ceremony."

"Where?"

"Saint Patrick's," Blaine said, looking at the ground, and Kurt almost choked on his own tongue.

"Saint... you mean the most famous cathedral in New York, St. Patrick's Cathedral? On Madison?" Blaine shrugged.

"Yeah. It was important to Jonathan, for some reason, and it's a beautiful church."

"I'll say," Kurt breathed out, because yes, he had been inside the cathedral, for curiosity's sake, and it was _stunning_. "You mean," Kurt continued, pulling out his phone and doing a quick Google search for the interior of the cathedral, pulling up a particularly impressive flickr photo of the altar, "you will be getting married right there?" he asked, showing the phone to Blaine.

"Yes."

"In two weeks?"

"Yes."

"Wow."

"Yeah," Blaine said, and this was the first time he had caught Blaine sounding unnerved.

"Are you nervous?" His mouth was just asking the best questions.

"I... I don't want to talk about this," Blaine said quickly. "Besides, this is my stop." Blaine was right. The announcer had just called out Lexington Avenue.

The doors opened, and Blaine released the overhead bar, headed out. A few seconds before stepping off the train, he stopped, and turned around. "Look, I know this is short notice, and maybe a little awkward, given our history, but... will you come to my wedding? Both parts: the ceremony and the reception. I just... it wouldn't feel right without you there."

"Yes," Kurt answered immediately. He didn't really have an option.

Especially because the bright smile Blaine gave him right after he answered, as he hopped off the train and the doors closed right behind him, made something cramp deep in his chest.

He was _so_ screwed.

* * *

><p>Kurt rode N to the 34th Street Station, and then the M all the way home. As tempting as it was, he resisted the urge to get on the F with Blaine and hope it would connect with the M. He hadn't seen the man for 4 years, he could handle 24 hours.<p>

But he was definitely taking the 7 home from now on.

By the time he actually reached his apartment, he was barely awake enough to climb the four sets of stairs up to his tiny apartment. He had told Blaine that he had a better apartment than the loft, and he did. He could afford one much bigger than the one he was living in, but he liked the minimalism. Plus, he didn't have to share it with anyone.

Besides, it was big for a studio, and even though it was _technically_ one room with a bathroom, the walls created subdivisions between the kitchen and living area and the bedroom nook. Plus, the bathroom was very spacious, and he _loved_ his claw-footed tub. Not that he had the energy to draw a bath at the moment, but he did almost every other day.

After putting in his daily call to the super in an effort to get the elevator fixed, Kurt collapsed onto his queen bed (the apartment really was a nice size), too lazy even for take-out. That would require _fetching_ it. There was so little delivery around.

It had been... surreal, seeing Blaine. The tenor was the one chapter of his history that had never really felt closed, and Kurt had a feeling opening that door again would drag his _entire_ history back into his life in two weeks. He also had the feeling that it was worth it. Blaine was the nicest person he had ever met, and he was worth it. Whatever 'it' could be.

For the first time in a long time, Kurt whistled as he left for work the next morning.

* * *

><p>Kurt finished his evil article at work the next day with a smile and a plan. He would ride the 7 train out of work again today, but not all the way to Queensboro Plaza. That had been too long a ride, even for the opportunity to see Blaine. He would ride with Blaine to Grand Central, then transfer to the 4, which would take him downtown, so he could get on the M at Bleecker Street. Theoretically, it wouldn't add much time to his commute, but it would give him a chance to talk to Blaine.<p>

He didn't see Blaine on the platform that afternoon, but when he got on the 7, Blaine was sitting there, glaring at people who were glaring at the backpack saving Kurt a seat. Blaine was wearing street clothes this time, jeans and a T-shirt for an insurance firm, probably the one that his fiancé worked for.

"Where from this time?" Kurt asked as he moved the backpack and sat down.

"73 Cooper Street," Blaine said with a smile. "I got on the A at the Inwood Station." It took Kurt a moment to remember where that was.

"Isn't that the uppermost point of Manhattan?"

"Pretty much."

"What the hell were you doing up there?"

"Bell's Voice Coaching," Blaine said casually. "Susan Bell is a friend of my mother, and she wanted to talk to me about a potential endorsement. Let's just say the meeting didn't go well and move on."

"Wait, couldn't you have just stayed on the A, gotten onto the B, then taken the F straight to Lexington?" Kurt asked, because it was weird Blaine didn't know that. He had gone to school in Morningside Heights. He should know those subways.

"I wanted to see you," Blaine said casually, as if it didn't mean _anything_. "Besides, I kind of dumped a major decision on you yesterday," he added. "I know it's weird to have my ex at my wedding, but I don't think Jonathan will mind, and I don't think about you the way most people think about their exes." What the hell did _that_ mean? Blaine didn't seem inclined to share.

"Blaine, I would love to be at your wedding," Kurt said, even though it felt a little like a lie. "I want to see you get your happy ending."

"Great," Blaine said with that same smile. "So, I'm guessing we had the same idea about meeting on the train today?" Blaine asked, and it was obviously awkward for both of them.

"I may or may not have found a new way home which involves a short trip on the 7, but doesn't add to my commute," much.

"Very nice," Blaine said with a smile. "What's your stop?"

"Grand Central." Blaine cracked up laughing.

"Oh, have fun. There's _no_ way you'll make a connector train at Grand Central. It is _madness_ over there, always. I _hate_ getting off at that station." Kurt put his head in his hands and groaned. So much for not adding to his commute. "Sorry," Blaine said, and it sounded like he actually meant it.

"Not your fault," Kurt said with a sigh. "Besides, my trip is always going to take a significant portion of my time after work."

"I meant to ask you about that," Blaine said as he stretched out a little when the person beside him got off. "Why Brooklyn? I know how much you love Manhattan."

"Manhattan's more expensive."

"You said you make enough money."

"Manhattan is louder."

"I've heard your step-brother snore. I don't think _loud_ really disrupts your sleep."

"Manhattan's dirty."

"So's Brooklyn," Blaine countered with a roll of his eyes. "Come _on_, Kurt, I know you. Why are you living in Brooklyn when you worked so hard to get to Manhattan?"

"Well, it's not exactly like all my dreams are coming true," Kurt said before thinking about it, and then sighed. Great. They had been reconnected for about twenty-four hours and Blaine was already dragging secrets out of him with that damn imploring voice.

"Ah, so it's the Broadway thing," Blaine said, and he sounded a bit victorious, having figured it out. The bastard.

"What would you know about the Broadway thing?" Blaine started rubbing Mac Daddy ring again.

"I... Like I told you, Jonathan's a big Broadway fan, and when he discovered I knew _Kurt Hummel_, he seemed to recognize your name. So I... I looked into what you had been doing after NYADA, and during NYADA. You got quite an impressive resume, even before graduating." Blaine kept rubbing the ring; he didn't even seem aware that he was doing so. "What happened?"

"I retired," Kurt said with a little laugh. "I was working three jobs, Broadway and the Starlight Diner and Vogue, and I was restricted by my range, and I retired."

"So why are you blaming Manhattan for your choice?" Blaine asked, and Kurt didn't have a good answer for that.

"'If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere,' but I couldn't make it. What else is there to blame?" he decided on, and Blaine didn't seem to have anything to say to that. They sat in uncomfortable silence, but they were wasting valuable time. They only saw each other for a few minutes each day. "So. Does music come with a day job?" Kurt asked, looking for a safe topic and making Blaine laugh.

"At first, it came with a variety of day jobs, from being a cashier to being an executive assistant, but it doesn't anymore. It's plenty profitable."

"Well, at least you'll have some good stories for the Jimmy Kimmel Show," Kurt said dryly, thinking of Rachel's desire to live in a cramped apartment for the sake of having stories to tell.

Clearly, Blaine remembered that too, because he rolled his eyes. "I haven't talked to her in a while. Is she any less crazy now than she was in high school?"

"I don't know. I haven't talked to her since college, and even then we weren't sharing an apartment anymore. She was living with... it starts with an 'M.'" Crap. "I can't remember. It's not like it lasted long anyway."

"Yeah, Rachel has been terribly flighty since Finn." Blaine didn't say anything else. No one ever did.

"So, any big celebrities I'll be seeing at your wedding?" His mouth apparently didn't know the meaning of 'safe topics.'

"Not that I know of, but Jonathan always has a way of surprising me. Knowing him, he'll have Macklemore performing _Same Love _at the reception or something." Blaine rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. He sounded more enchanted than annoyed. "I can't believe it's already Friday."

"Why? Not looking forward to the weekend?" Who didn't look forward to the weekend?

"No, it just means I'm getting married in eight days." Kurt almost choked on his own spit.

"Eight days? I thought you said two weeks yesterday!" Kurt exclaimed, because he really should have through this through. He had agreed to come to Blaine's wedding without even knowing what day it was.

"I rounded up," Blaine said innocently, and he was rubbing his ring again. "Besides, to say one week makes it... scarier."

"You _are_ nervous," Kurt said, because yeah. It was obvious. Every time they talked about the wedding or Blaine's fiancé, Blaine was doing his best to erode that ring on his finger to dust.

"Of course I'm nervous," Blaine said with a slight laugh. "Isn't everyone nervous before their wedding?"

"I don't know," Kurt said honestly, and he could have strangled the announcer when they announced Grand Central.

"Have fun fighting the crowds," Blaine said as more than half the train stood up, and Kurt didn't really have a choice but to be swept away with them. After he was on the platform, he caught sight of Blaine through the window, ignoring the crowd that was shoving him towards the stairs. Blaine was looking down at his hand, still rubbing that ring, and Kurt made an executive decision.

He had to meet Jonathan before Blaine got married.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Welcome to my new story! This has been several months in the works (I don't remember exactly when/why I came up with the idea), but I've put a lot of work into it and I hope you guys enjoy! This story is eleven chapters long, all written, so I'll be posting every week on Friday. The title is from the Taylor Swift song**** '_Speak Now_'.

**Reviews are Love.**


	2. Jonathan Soon-to-Be Holloway-Anderson

Of course, there was the small matter that even though they had been talking and laughing and clearly getting along for the last two subway rides, they still had no means of contacting each other besides the subway, and Kurt couldn't exactly predict seeing Blaine on the 7 on Saturday. So, he got up bright and early Saturday morning (not that that was unusual) with a plan.

That plan, the phone book, wasn't a good plan. Most people in New York didn't even _have_ landlines, and most landlines that existed were unlisted. There was no Blaine Anderson in the phone book, and then it occurred to Kurt. Blaine was probably living with Jonathan. Jonathan was an executive at a fairly prominent insurance company. The name of which he knew from Blaine's t-shirt.

Jonathan Holloway, soon-to-be Jonathan Holloway-Anderson. It was almost too easy.

Kurt rolled his eyes at the way Jonathan was flaunting his soon-to-be married name on the company website because he's trying to get that responsible image.

Jonathan Holloway... even the _name_ was underwhelming. Unfortunately, there was no face displayed to go with the name. The good news was that Blaine's fiancé was in the phone book, a landline in a charming brownstone on the Upper East Side. At least, that's what Kurt was picturing based on the address as he dialed the number. He didn't have a contingency plan for what he would do if Jonathan answered.

"_Hello?_" Blaine's voice came over the line. See? Contingency plans were unnecessary.

"Hi, Blaine," Kurt said awkwardly, because how exactly was he planning to suggest to Blaine that he scope out his fiancé without _telling_ Blaine that he wanted to meet Jonathan to scope him out.

"_Kurt! I was just thinking that I didn't know how to get in touch with you. I was thinking phone book, but Jon and I are possibly the only people in New York City that still have a landline._"

"You may be entirely right."

"_How did you get this number?_"

"Creeping skills that I mastered under Rachel's tutelage," Kurt said, not quite willing to admit that he had found Blaine through his fiancé. That made them sound like a joint unit, and Blaine was nervous enough already.

"_Jon and I were going to head downtown to Sardi's for brunch,_" was it ten thirty already? "_You wanna join us?_" That was one way to meet the fiancé.

"I would love to," Kurt said, already mentally planning his outfit. If he was going to meet the man that was going to marry his ex-boyfriend in a week, he was _going_ to make an impression... a lasting one.

"_Great. The table will be under Holloway, in case you get there before we do. Though I doubt that, Brooklyner,_" he said, and Kurt could tell he was grinning. "_See you there._" Click.

Perfect.

* * *

><p>Kurt took the same route to Sardi's that he took to work. It really wasn't that far away from the Conde Nast building.<p>

However, it _was_ farther from Brooklyn than it was from the Upper East Side, and Blaine was standing in front of Sardi's in a suit and a smile when Kurt crossed the street.

"Hey!" Blaine said with a bright smile, hugging Kurt with no regard for whether or not his fiancé was there. Speaking of the fiancé, where was Jonathan?

"Where's Jonathan?" Kurt asked.

"He's inside," Blaine replied, "ordering us drinks. Since you're probably still on your life-long health kick, I told him to get you water with lemon."

"Perfect," Kurt said, because yeah, Blaine knew him better than anyone else.

Blaine headed into the restaurant with a nod at the hostess, and headed into the lower level, which was reserved for the rich, famous, and powerful. Jonathan really _was_ an executive.

"Hey," Blaine said brightly when he reached a table with three chairs, one occupied. His fiancé was wearing dark sunglasses, and Kurt realized he was hungover. "I have returned with our guest. Kurt, this is Jonathan Holloway, my fiancé. Jon, this is Kurt Hummel, my ex." Kurt looked at Blaine in surprise when he said that, but Blaine didn't seem concerned about Jonathan knowing that.

"Pleasure," Jonathan said, standing up to shake Kurt's hand quickly and then sitting back down. He was brusque towards Kurt, but that was understandable. Kurt was willing to bet he wasn't that way with Blaine, judging by the _Look_ Blaine was giving him.

Jonathan was pretty much exactly what he had expected, what he had been picturing. He was tall and well-built, with dark brown hair. The sunglasses prevented Kurt from seeing his eyes, but he was willing to bet his paycheck for the next ten years that they were blue. He was definitely attractive, Kurt had to give him that much, but his face was stubbly and his pores were huge. Obviously, he didn't care much about his skin.

Blaine pulled out his chair for him and Jonathan signaled to the waiter. "So..." Blaine said after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence. "Any plans for the weekend, Kurt?" he asked, and it was clear that his whole idea for a fun brunch with the fiancé and the ex probably wasn't going to work out the way he had planned. In all fairness, it wasn't the best plan in the first place.

"Not at the moment," Kurt answered, a way to say no without seeming pathetic (hopefully). "What about you?" He didn't ask Jonathan. He didn't care. Nothing about Blaine's fiancé was endearing the man to Kurt, especially because he was hungover.

"Nothing wild and crazy," Blaine responded with a smile. "We might go see a show or two, and maybe have some fancy dinners out with Jonathan's parents. They're in town for the wedding, and we can hardly get rid of them." Blaine threw his fiancé a smile (it was clearly in inside joke), but Jonathan wasn't looking at Blaine. Jonathan's eyes were scanning the restaurant. "There's wedding set-up to do, but thankfully the 404 is very accommodating, and we don't actually have to be involved in most things. I have to locate most of our wedding party, whom we have yet to get in touch with. Jonathan's sister, our maid of honor, is harping at the rest of the bridesmaids, trying to get them all prepared, and she's kind of bummed she doesn't get to throw anyone a bachelorette party, but Jon and I agreed we would have separate bachelor parties, and even though the best man is my brother, he's throwing a party for Jon, and Elizabeth, Jon's sister, is throwing a party for me. We figured it was the perfect way to really promote harmony in the families." These were all the words coming out of Blaine's mouth, but his eyes were telling a different story. One where Jonathan hadn't wanted to go to a bachelor party thrown by his own sister, and instead had stolen the awesome party Cooper had probably been planning for most of Blaine's life out from under his fiancé, but the tenor couldn't complain because they were getting married in a week, and he didn't really think there was any going back now.

Jonathan _definitely_ wasn't doing anything to endear himself to Kurt.

"Well, I'm sure the party Jonathan's sister throws will be fun. She'll probably drag you to a strip club and embarrass the crap out of you, because she's not shy about watching male strippers, and Cooper probably is."

"You do remember that my brother was _in_ a movie about male strippers, right? If there are any straight men on the planet completely comfortable with that, they are the guys in that movie. _Especially_ Cooper." Blaine wasn't helping Kurt turn this little situation in Blaine's favor. It was terribly saddening. "Knowing him, he's probably convinced Channing Tatum to do an _actual_ strip show." Kurt snorted. Yeah, he had met Cooper on numerous occasions, and that definitely sounded like him.

"Well, I'm sure... you said her name was Elizabeth, right?" Elizabeth Holloway was not longer in charge of Blaine's bachelor party. She just didn't know it yet.

"Elizabeth McCulloch," Blaine corrected Kurt's mental note with a nod, but Kurt had a feeling the tenor didn't know what he was up to.

"I'm sure Elizabeth will throw you a great party." Well, he would be sure as soon as he got a hold of her. "Who else is in your wedding party?" Kurt was hesitant to ask. He wouldn't put it past his too-nice-for-words ex-boyfriend to suddenly add him to the wedding party as well as the guest list.

"Santana's one of my bridesmaids, so are Rachel and Tina. As well as a few female friends of Jon's." Blaine smiled over at his fiancé again. This time Jonathan was looking at the table.

"I thought you said you hadn't talked to Rachel in a long time," Kurt questioned, but Blaine just smiled.

"I haven't seen her since I asked her to be a bridesmaid, and that was within hours of Jon asking me." This time Blaine squeezed his fiancé's hand (the squeeze looked rather forceful, and a little bit painful), but Jonathan still wasn't paying attention to him, or the conversation. "About a year ago," Blaine added helpfully, in case Kurt had forgotten.

"And what about the groomsmen? Besides Cooper, I mean," Kurt said, just to distract Blaine from how Jonathan was acting. Maybe he just wasn't quite as pleased as Blaine was to have one of the tenor's exes coming to their wedding. Kurt couldn't exactly blame him, but that didn't mean he had to be an asshole about it.

"Sam fought Cooper for the best man position," Blaine said with a laugh, "but he didn't know my brother is actually pretty strong. Wes absolutely insisted on being included, in that council voice he used to use that logically shouldn't still work, yet somehow still does. That's about it in the way of my groomsmen, the ones you would know." Blaine didn't mention Jonathan's groomsmen or the number of them. Odd.

The rest of brunch was much the same, Blaine giving Kurt details about the wedding or asking him questions about his job (thankfully, his ex did _not_ bring up his empty love life), and occasionally smiling at his fiancé, who was steadfastly ignoring both him and Kurt.

"I think it's about time we go out and enjoy the day," Kurt said finally after about an hour and a half of watching Blaine be ignored by the man he was in love with. Supposedly. Though Kurt was finding it hard to believe that anyone could love Jonathan. He didn't seem to have any sort of visible personality.

If anyone could love him, it would be Blaine.

"It was nice to see you, Kurt," Blaine said, standing up and giving Kurt a hug as he was about to leave. "Here," Blaine grabbed his phone as quick as the best pickpocket in the city, unlocking it easily despite the fact that he shouldn't know the password (MDNA, at the moment), "is my new cell number. Call me anytime."

"Will do," Kurt said, ignoring the slight déjà vu from the day they met. That had been so many years ago.

As soon as he was out of Sardi's, he called Rachel for the first time in six months.

He had a bachelor party to save.

* * *

><p>"Have you actually met him?" Rachel asked as she made them tea.<p>

"Jonathan? Yes, we had brunch today. And by 'we had brunch today,' I mean Blaine and I had brunch and he did an incredibly dedicated Bernie impression." Rachel snorted at that.

"No one else has met him. Not me, Wes, Santana, Sam, Tina, not even Cooper, I don't think. It's like he's keeping Jon under wraps and the wedding's going to be the big reveal."

"I'm not exactly sure how spectacular that reveal is going to be," Kurt said dryly, and before Rachel could ask what he meant, he cut her off. "So, you've met the elusive sister?"

"She's not exactly elusive. She lives in Queens."

"Blaine told me all of Jonathan's family had settled on the West Coast."

"I don't know about that, but I _do_ know that Elizabeth hasn't met Blaine yet. It's like Jonathan's keeping Blaine away from _his_ family, too." Rachel sounded concerned. Kurt couldn't blame her.

"Can you give me Elizabeth's number?"

"Why?"

"Because I think I have some damage control to do." More than he had originally thought.

"Kurt..." Rachel started, but she trailed off. "Just, uh, d-don't do anything stupid, all right? They're getting married." That implied a whole lot of things that Kurt hadn't been thinking about.

"I know that," Kurt said as Rachel scribbled down the number. "I just wanted to right some wrongs."

"Some assumed wrongs," Rachel corrected, but she didn't push the issue. "So, have you talked about it?"

"Have who talked about what?" Kurt asked as he put Elizabeth McCulloch's number in his phone and began planning exactly what he was going to say to her. He was going to sound like a crazed stalker at first, but a few harmless fibs could turn everything around.

His plan was starting to seem a lot like a plot.

"Have you and Blaine talked about it?"

"Okay, you answered _half_ my question. That's definitely progress from high school." Rachel ignored the slight.

"Have you and Blaine talked about the way you ended? The fact that he asked you to marry him and you said no?" Rachel asked, sounding rather exasperated.

"No," Kurt answered honestly, though lying to her was incredibly tempting. "We made a tacit agreement to let bygones be bygones. Water under the bridge," Kurt said, painting Rachel a little picture with his hands.

"Which is the _exact_ definition of not talking about it," Rachel commented, but Kurt chose not to rise to the bait. "I'm surprised that he let you of all people meet Jonathan."

"What do you mean, 'me of all people?'" Kurt asked, because yes, the situation was awkward, but he and Blaine had never been normal.

"You're his ex-boyfriend. I'm wondering if he's looking for your approval, or trying to find an excuse not to marry Jonathan." Kurt spit out his tea all over Rachel's carpet.

"What do you mean looking for an excuse not to marry him?" Kurt asked quickly over Rachel's protests of her ruined rug.

"I _mean_," Rachel said as she dragged out the carpet cleaner, "I haven't talked to Blaine lately, but Tina told Santana that he's pretty nervous about the wedding."

"I already knew that."

"Some people's automatic reaction to cold feet is trying to remove themselves from the situation. Maybe Blaine's manifesting his cold feet in your approval," Rachel suggested, and clearly she had gotten a degree in psychology when Kurt wasn't looking. "Did you tell him what you think of Jonathan?"

"No."

"What _do_ you think of Jonathan?"

"I haven't decided yet," Kurt said, and he was being honest, if playing his cards a little bit close. He wasn't sure if he hated him or _loathed_ him. There was a big difference between the two. One he had a song to sing about. "What did the sister have to say?"

"Elizabeth?"

"Yeah."

"Well, she seemed excited about the wedding. Maybe a little surprised, but excited for her brother." Which probably meant she hadn't expected him to get married. Curiouser and curiouser.

"I think I might call her. Get to know Blaine's future family."

"I know you're going to call her," Rachel said with a sigh, "but try not to alienate her."

"Why would I do that?" Kurt was willing to bet Elizabeth McCulloch was on his side. Whichever side that may be.

"Because _you_ were almost Blaine's future family," Rachel said simply.

Kurt wasn't jealous. He was just concerned. Protective.

And he was _really_ interested to know what Elizabeth McCulloch would have to say about her brother.

* * *

><p>Kurt had a glass (or two) of wine for liquid courage before calling Elizabeth that night. Blaine was getting married in seven days. He couldn't procrastinate on this the way he did on assignments at work.<p>

This was serious.

When a voice answered in a very Scottish accent (probably Elizabeth's husband), Kurt flat-out lied. "Yes, my name is Kurt Hummel and I'm looking for Elizabeth McCulloch. I'm part of her brother's wedding party." There was the lie, and it came out perfectly. Mr. McCulloch called out for his wife, and soon a female voice came to the phone.

"_Hello?_"

"Hi. My name is Kurt Hummel and-"

"_And you're _not_ part of my brother's wedding party, so what do you want?_" she asked coolly, as if she had stalker-ish exes of her brother's fiancé calling her everyday.

"Well, I _am_ a friend of the man your brother is marrying."

"_The fact that you know my brother's marrying a man would be conclusive proof of that, yes,_" she said, and she sounded amused.

"Plus he hyphenated his name on the website already." Okay, maybe the wine _hadn't_ been such a good idea.

"_Yes, but some headstrong women make their men do that. What do you want?_"

"Well, I've known Blaine for a long time, and I want to send him off in style."

"_You want to talk bachelor party?_"

"Yes."

"_Okay. We can talk bachelor party. Meet me tomorrow at... oh, I don't know. The Pancake Faktory on Park? Tomorrow at 8?_"

"Do you mind if I bring the rest of the bridal party? The ones I know, at least."

"_I'll bring the other half._" There was silence on the other line for a second. "_Have you met Jonny?_"

"Yes."

"_And you've seen them together?_"

"Briefly. Though at the time, your brother was rather hungover."

"_That is his default state,_" she said dryly, and Kurt was starting to like her _much_ more than her brother. "_Either that or drunk... Do think they're good together?_"

"I don't know."

"_I haven't met him. Blaine._"

"He's a great guy."

"_That's what I'm worried about._"

"You were surprised to hear your brother is getting married?"

"_For someone not part of the wedding party, you seem much more informed than anyone else._"

"I have my sources."

"_Yes, I was surprised. Not that my brother doesn't believe in marriage or anything, he does, but I was surprised anyone wanted to marry him. If he ever had good qualities, he drowned them in Scotch._"

"I'm worried about Blaine."

"_He's marrying my brother. You should be._"

"He tends to see the best in everyone and ignore the bad. It's gotten him hurt before."

"_Well, he'd have to be pretty oblivious to ignore all the bad in my brother._"

"He's oblivious enough. Trust me."

"_We'll talk about this more tomorrow, after the bridesmaids leave. My husband's starting to look at me funny._"

"Tomorrow at 8. Pancake Faktory on Park."

"_You got it._"

"See you then."

"_See you._"

* * *

><p>Rachel, Tina, and Santana weren't exactly happy to be dragged out of bed for an 8 o'clock meeting on Sunday morning, but Rachel lived in Manhattan, and Tina and Santana were both staying in the hotel that was almost entirely guests to Blaine and Jonathan's wedding, which was in Midtown, so they really didn't get to complain. Kurt definitely had to travel the farthest.<p>

"You must be Kurt." Jonathan's sister was _beautiful_. Long, flowing black hair, sharp hazel eyes set in a heart-shaped face, she could have been on the cover Kurt was supposed to be designing Monday.

"Elizabeth."

"This is Michelle, Cathy, and Kate," she pointed to the girls behind her.

"This is Rachel, Tina, and Santana," Kurt said, pointing to the girls behind him. "They're Blaine's half of the wedding party."

"A little less than half, unless you're a bridesmaid," she said with a grin. "Come on, let's grab a table."

A table for eight wasn't the easiest thing to get in Manhattan, but Elizabeth managed. Possibly because the waiter she asked was almost _drooling_, but that was beside the point.

"Strip club," were the first two words out of Elizabeth's mouth as they sat down, and the waiter looked about ready to faint. "It's the most traditional bachelor party setting, and I don't think Blaine is expecting it at all."

"I don't think Blaine knows what to expect," Kurt added.

"It's not my fault I've never met him," Elizabeth hissed at him, but thankfully no one seemed to notice.

"How about something a little classier than that?" Tina suggested. "I mean, I know Blaine's a _guy_ and he probably wouldn't _mind_ going to a strip club, but he's not a rampant horndog."

"As far as you know," Kurt muttered, and Elizabeth laughed.

"What are you expecting to find, male burlesque? This isn't an Aguilera movie. _This_ is Magic Mike!" Santana exclaimed.

"Blaine's brother was _in_ that movie. I think he finds the whole concept rather traumatic," Rachel pipped up, making everyone laugh. The waiter came over and took their orders, which added up to the amount of food required to feed a reasonably-sized army.

"What about that place on the corner of 8th and 39th?" one of the bridesmaids sycophants pipped up (Kurt hadn't bothered to remember which one was which) once the waiter was gone.

"Hunk Mania?" Tina asked, and then everyone turned to look at her as she blushed. "I mean..."

"What do you think, Kurt?" Elizabeth asked.

"I've never been to... Hunk Mania." Even the name made it sound kind of... cheap.

"About dragging Blaine to a strip club for his bachelor party."

"Dragging has quite a different connotation than bringing."

"That was the idea."

"I see your feelings are clear."

"As are yours. Right there on your face."

"So we're in agreement."

"Perfectly."

"Are you sure _you're_ not the two getting married?" Santana asked dryly.

"Oh, please, Santana, I've been down that road before. With _your_ wife, as I recall." Rachel and Tina snickered as Santana glared.

"I forgot about that. You'll pay for that, Hummel." The waiter brought over the food, and the arguing stopped for a few minutes as everyone inhaled their breakfasts. It wasn't the classiest consumption Kurt had seen from girls, but it definitely streamlined the process.

"As charming as this reunion is," Elizabeth dry-panned, "if we're not going to a strip club, we need somewhere to bring Blaine for his bachelor party."

"How about just a club?" Tina suggested, but Elizabeth shook her head.

"Not special enough. If there is a _woman_ planning a _bachelor_ party, it has to be fantastic."

"She has a point."

"Any idea what Blaine wants?"

"Not a clue. I think Cooper had some ideas, but he's probably using those for Jonathan."

"What about..." Santana started as she browsed on her phone, "the Manhattan Men VIP booth? Pictures, champagne, seems like a pretty good idea to me."

"I can't believe you're still talking about strip clubs," Elizabeth said with much sass.

"I can," Kurt said with equal sass.

"I can't believe Anderson actually invited his ex-boyfriend to his wedding," Santana shot back, and Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at Kurt.

"Ex-boyfriend?"

"Did I forget to mention that?" he asked innocently, making her laugh.

"I guess that would explain why you care, and why you called me to scope out my brother after the lousy first impression he made." Elizabeth sounded like she was putting together the pieces, and the image the puzzle made amused her. "And maybe even why you don't want to take him to a strip club."

"You mean, because I know Blaine so well and that's not what he would want?" Kurt asked, and Elizabeth grinned.

"Something like that. Still, if I, head of Jonathan's wedding party by default, and you, head of Blaine's wedding party by force, agree that Blaine shouldn't be taken to a strip club, I think that's the final decision."

"It's interesting that you divide their wedding parties," Kurt said with a little smile. He liked the sister much more than he liked Jonathan.

"Wouldn't you? Bottom line: no strip clubs."

"Loser," Santana huffed under her breath, but no one else had anything to say on the matter.

"Why don't you two just decide on a place rather than dragging us all out of bed at ungodly hours of the morning to neglect our opinions?" Tina demanded, and she sounded pissed, but Kurt really didn't care. Tina had mostly been Blaine's creepy stalker during high school; Kurt was surprised she was even a bridesmaid. Another example of Blaine failing to see anything but the good.

"Sounds good to me," Elizabeth said, standing up from the table. "Shall we?"

"Actually, _we_ have another appointment," Kurt admitted. He hadn't clued her in on his entire plan, mostly because it didn't seem entirely necessary to give her the full picture. He had started to see exactly what was going on behind the scenes of this wedding, and he didn't like it at all. She didn't like it to begin with, and she clearly had enough to worry about.

"Where?"

"Bryant Park."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I know that it's almost Saturday at this point, but I didn't forget you guys. Meet the Holloway family! They're very involved in the story, and I find them very amusing. This chapter is a little short, but there's a lot of Klaine goodness in the next one, so be patient :)**

**Also, the italics thing is just something I do with phone calls. Anyone who is not in the room is in italics. For some reason, it makes it easier for me to keep track of my characters during more complicated scenes.**

**Oh, and in my head canon, Matt Bomer is Cooper's stage name in the future, so everything Matt Bomer has done I claim as Cooper's accomplishments. Hence all the Magic Mike jokes.**

**Reviews are Love.**


	3. Adventures in Bryant Park

Kurt had felt a little guilty selecting Bryant Park as the meeting place. Blaine and he had first broken up in Bryant Park, and then sang there together that Christmas, while Blaine twirled circles around Kurt on the ice and Kurt stumbled around like an idiot. It had a lot of meaning to him, even though that had been a long time ago, and he was sure that Blaine felt the same way. However, Bryant Park was six blocks from the Pancake Faktory, and it was the most convenient place for them to meet, unless they sat in Paley's pocket park on 53rd.

Kurt and Elizabeth settled at one of the tables near the fountain on the West end of the park. "So, I'm guessing we're meeting Blaine here?"

"You've already figured out how my brain works, haven't you?"

"You're just a touch devious, and you want this wedding to go smoothly because you love Blaine, not in a creepy-ex way, but in a best-friend way, even if you're not sure Jonathan is the right guy for your ex. Am I right?"

"Perfectly."

"When will he be here?"

"So, I got bitched out by Rachel this morning-" Blaine began to say as he approached Kurt sitting at the table a few minutes later. He froze mid-sentence. "Who's..."

"This is Elizabeth, your fiancé's sister," Kurt said casually. "We were just having a little chat about the best places to get breakfast in Brooklyn." Since the food at the Pancake Faktory had been pretty good.

"Oh, well, there are better places to get breakfast in Manhattan while you're staying here..."

"What the hell is he talking about?" Elizabeth asked, looking at Kurt with suspicion and just a pinch of amusement.

"Blaine, Elizabeth here lives in _Queens._ Coming into the city to get breakfast is just silly." Blaine was processing, Kurt could tell. And he didn't exactly looked pleased with the inevitable conclusion.

"Oh. I... I didn't know that." Kurt had no idea where Jonathan had told Blaine that Elizabeth lived, but he didn't look very happy. "It's nice to meet you."

"You too," Elizabeth said, reaching up to shake his hand without standing up. "Can't believe I haven't met the man marrying my brother."

"Well, things have been so hectic lately."

"Yeah, but I've been seeing Jonathan every weekend." Elizabeth probably had no clue what Kurt was doing. She was just being honest. Blaine froze. Again. It was the second lie he had caught his fiancé in within a matter of seconds, so it was understandable that he was a little shell-shocked.

"Jon always tells me..." Blaine muttered, so quietly Kurt could barely hear him, and judging by Elizabeth's expression of confusion, she couldn't hear him at all. "Well, it's nice to meet you at any rate."

"So, what was our lovely crazy yelling at you about?" Elizabeth asked casually, and Blaine looked uncomfortably between the two of them. "Ah, I get it. Ex stuff." Elizabeth nodded sagely, but she seemed very amused. "So, sit down. Tell me about yourself, because the picture I've gotten from Kurtsie here can't be real if you're actually marrying my brother."

Blaine looked over at Kurt with a little smile. "Do I even want to know?"

"Probably not," Kurt teased back. Elizabeth was looking between the two of them with a rather interested expression.

"So," Blaine said, sitting down, "my name is Blaine Devon Anderson, I'm a singer and a musician currently looking into an album and opening for Florence + the Machine, yes, both of those deals are still going well," he added to Kurt without breaking his little monologue, or breathing, for that matter, "I went to Columbia with your brother, studying Music at Columbia College, um... I'm an Aquarius, even though I think horoscopes are stupid," Blaine was floundering for things to say about himself.

"He plays more instruments than should be possibly, speaks several languages, is worth quite a chunk of money-"

"Kurt!"

"And is just about the greatest and smartest person on the planet." Blaine blushed at that. "Even though he's too shy to describe himself as such." Elizabeth was laughing.

"Hey, there, Hummel, stop flirting with my brother's fiancé," she said, still chuckling, and the air got really heavy. "Ooh, I found the elephant in the room without looking for it," she added casually. "I'm guessing you two didn't end well?"

"That's what Rachel was yelling at me about," Blaine muttered, looking at MacDaddy ring rather than at either of them.

"Of course she was," Kurt said with a sigh and a roll of his eyes. "She was lecturing me too. She doesn't believe in tacit agreements." Kurt didn't mention the whole bit about cold feet and Blaine looking for excuses to get out of marrying Jonathan. That was the last thing Blaine needed six days before his wedding: self-doubt.

"I wasn't aware we made a tacit agreement," Blaine said quietly.

"And apparently she was right."

"Wow, this _is_ awkward," Elizabeth said after several seconds of complete silence. "I am terribly sorry for bringing that up."

"Don't worry about it, Elizabeth," Blaine said, literally shaking the incident off. "We're both adults, and we can act as such, right, Kurt?"

"I thought that was a tacit agreement," Kurt muttered, and he didn't mean to be stubborn, but it was important. If Blaine wasn't over whatever had happened between them, there was an entirely different tone to the invitation to his wedding and their talk about relationships and how nervous Blaine was and... everything.

Apparently, Blaine didn't hear him, because he didn't address what Kurt had said. "Right," Kurt agreed after a moment. "It was four years ago. We're completely different people."

"Yes. You're getting married in six days." Apparently, that was all the 'different' Elizabeth cared about. It was what Kurt should care about too, but something was off. She looked at Blaine was she spoke, but there was a touch of ambivalence and ambiguity in her carefully-chosen words. "And on that note, I'm leaving. I don't believe in tacit agreements either, so I think you two should talk." Elizabeth plucked a Sharpie out of her purse and scribbled her number on the back of Blaine's hand. "Let me know if you want to talk about wedding stuff, okay?" She said before departing rather quickly, probably headed for the 42nd Street-Bryant Park entrance onto the M and home.

"So," Blaine said carefully after she was out of sight, "when exactly did we make a tacit agreement?"

"I assumed the whole 'you remember the last time we saw each other as well as I do' thing was your way of saying, 'we both know what happened, but we're both over it.'"

"I am over it," was all Blaine said in response.

"As am I."

"It doesn't help being in this park." That didn't sound over it. "Rachel told me about a theory of hers."

"Oh?" Kurt was going to kill her the next time he got the chance.

"She thinks that by reconnecting with you, I'm trying to look for a reason not to get married. That I'm, and I quote, 'manifesting my cold feet in your approval.'" Blaine looked up at Kurt and he was smiling. "Crazy, right?"

"That would be the perfect description of every theory of Rachel's, yes."

"Besides, what would that do?" Blaine asked him, and it seemed to be a layered question. "You liked Jon, didn't you?" How the hell was Kurt supposed to answer that without lying, or sounding like a jealous ex?

"I don't like that he lied to you," Kurt decided on, and judging by Blaine's sigh, he had said the right thing... or at least, the best thing for the conversation.

"I don't either, but I'm going to call him on it, and I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation."

"Where did he tell you Elizabeth lived?"

"Santa Cruz, California. It's just south of San Francisco," Blaine explained when Kurt gave him a blank look. "He's a little rough around the edges, I know, but he's a great guy."

"I believe you," Kurt lied, because he didn't know how to tell Blaine exactly how well he picked guys. Blaine saw the best in everyone, which often meant he wasn't a great judge of character. But now wasn't the appropriate time to tell him that. If he had made a bad decision, he was marrying it. It was too late now.

"Do you remember when we sang here?" Blaine asked with a laugh, looking over towards Citi Pond. "I was _so_ obsessed with getting you back, but we were both in such a terrible place. I was depressed about you, and you had just found out about your dad's cancer." Blaine shook his head. "We were such idiots back then."

"Are we going to talk about it?"

"Yes, I'm just gathering the chutzpah," Blaine said with a little smile. "I'm sorry."

"That's the strangest reaction to a proposal I've ever seen," Kurt said, hoping four years wasn't still too soon to be making jokes. Thankfully, Blaine laughed.

"Even with all the sit-coms and rom-coms I've watched in my existence, and the fact that I've actually been proposed to _twice_, yours still remains the strangest reaction I've ever seen." Blaine was smiling.

"Twice?" Kurt had to ask.

"Jon asked me at the beginning of senior year, after we had been dating for about a year and a half, but..." Blaine was rubbing that damn ring again with his middle finger, his hands on the crossed on the table. "We had been going through a little bit of a rough patch, and I realized he was trying to do the same thing I did with you. So I said no. He didn't take it too personally, we fixed up our issues, and then at graduation everything was just... perfect," the tenor continued dreamily. Blaine blushed as he returned to earth. "Sorry, I-"

"How did he ask you?" Kurt asked, realizing that only by hearing Blaine's perspective could he find any good in Jonathan. Even his sister didn't seem to like him.

"Well, I graduated summa cum laude and he graduated magna cum laude, so Cooper and I were laughing about his fuming. I didn't even realize that his little storm off was for the purpose of grabbing a ring, but I wasn't too worried about it. He can be a little silly and a little diva-ish.

"My parents, being my parents, brought us all out to a really nice restaurant. They had gotten used to the idea of Jonathan and I, and they had given him their blessing, though I didn't know that at the time. Cooper kept teasing me about my runaway bride, which was a reference I should have gotten, but didn't because I expect that kind of insanity from Cooper, and I can be fairly oblivious, as you know.

"I had been wearing jeans and a t-shirt under my gown, but I knew Jon and a bunch of his friends decided to be the stereotypical group that wasn't wearing very much at all. I didn't ask exactly, but I have a feeling he wasn't wearing anything. I didn't realize until later he had risked flashing the graduation so it would be easy to change into a tuxedo in the parking lot.

"When he walked up to the table in a tuxedo, with about four thousand roses and a velvet black box, well, Cooper likes to joke that my jaw hit the floor and stayed there. I'm sure I wasn't _that_ bad, but I was pretty surprised. After our first little ring mishap, I thought he would wait longer before he tried again, but apparently he had a lot more chutzpah than I do. I actually started using that damn word because he uses it so often," Blaine commented with a chuckle before returning to his story. "The proposal was actually pretty simple, he didn't give me a big eloquent speech, though he disclosed later that was mostly because Cooper would have ridiculed anything that came out of his mouth, but it was... perfect. It was completely perfect." Blaine had been deeply involved in the story telling, rolling his eyes and laughing, but he had that same blissful smile on his face as he had earlier. Whatever made him love Jon, he obviously wasn't disenchanted by the lies. For some reason, that just made Kurt mad.

"Cute story," was all he said, and if Blaine recognized his temper, he didn't say anything.

"Now that you have gotten me _thoroughly_ distracted, I should return to apologizing for being an idiot. Admittedly a love-struck idiot who just wanted to be with you so much that I forsook common sense, but still a complete and total idiot."

"Blaine-" Kurt tried to interject, because Blaine was always too hard on himself, but the tenor stopped him.

"Kurt, we were in _high school_! We were too young to be getting married. For a while after that, I was really miserable, but then I realized we were probably too young to have the co-dependent relationship we had even before that. I can _never_ justify cheating on you, and to this day, I will list that as one of the biggest mistakes I have made in my life, but we weren't ready for more. We weren't even ready for the relationship we had then. So, yes, I'm sorry for causing our complete and utter destruction, but not because I think we should have ended up together. I'm happy with Jon, I really am. I'm just sorry I destroyed our chance of being friends at that age because I was _so_ desperate for your approval that I asked you the ultimate yes or no question. You had every right to say no, and I'm glad you did. I'm just sorry that I held the grudge for so long, that I severed our friendship because I was angry and bitter, that... I'm just sorry."

"You do know that being crazy and young and stupid and in love isn't a one-way street, right?" Kurt asked with a smile, used to the monologues Blaine spoke in when he was passionate about something. "I forgive you, and I'm sorry too."

"Of course I forgive you," Blaine said with a smile.

"Seal it with a kiss!" Elizabeth yelled, ducking out from where she had been hiding on the other side of the fountain.

"I can't believe you're still here!" Blaine yelped, crossing his arms over himself like he was trying to hide from her.

"I can," Kurt said dryly, and Elizabeth smiled.

"You seriously thought I was going to miss that? I _had_ to know. But now I'm off, because my husband _must_ be wondering what's taking me so long."

"If he really knows you, he's probably not that curious," Kurt added, and she grinned wolfishly.

"Very true. Catch you on the flip side, Blaine, Kurt."

"Are you tempted to follow her to make sure she's actually leaving this time?"

"Yep."

Blaine seemed determined to continue with the heavy conversation. "I'm not sorry we didn't end up together, we were... not a perfect fit is actually the only criticism I can come up with, but I _am_ sorry that you haven't found anyone special. How long has it been?" That was _not_ a question Kurt wanted to answer.

"Since there's been anyone serious? Not since you." Apparently, his mouth had taken over for his brain, because he did _not_ plan to say that.

"Oh," was all Blaine said.

"The good news is that if Elizabeth didn't jump out at that particular juicy piece of gossip, she's probably not here," Kurt said dryly, and under any other circumstances it would have made Blaine laugh.

"Why so long?" Blaine asked, and he clearly didn't understand the concepts of minding his own business, or not bringing up uncomfortable subjects (such as romantic partners) with one's ex. Someone _really_ needed to put him through cotillion. "What about Adam?"

"Adam and I kind of fell apart after I had been home for so long, and then he found out about what had happened at the wedding, and apparently _he_ thought we were exclusive, so that ended. Then Adam told everyone that story, and I became a cheating pariah at NYADA. I haven't really gotten many opportunities since then because Is has a strict no in-house dating. So, perpetually single. Nice to meet you." Blaine didn't even crack a smile.

The silence was long and awkward, until Kurt's mouth took over for his brain again. "Does Jonathan drink a lot?" Kurt almost smacked his head off the table. Why had he asked that?

"Why did you ask me that?" was Blaine's response, but his face had gone stony.

"Elizabeth mentioned something." Elizabeth had been a bit rough about it, but it was possible Jonathan just drank too much around her.

"Jonathan was a little irresponsible with the drinking during college and, according to his stories, during high school, but he's cleaned up lately. I'm not saying he's a year sober or anything, but he never has more than two beers at home, and he only goes out to company parties where the strongest thing they serve is wine."

"Then why was he hungover yesterday?" His mouth needed to shut up. Seriously.

"I'm not saying he's perfect," Blaine replied with a sigh. "On Friday night he went out with some of his old college buddies, the ones that didn't wear anything under their graduation gowns, and _yes_, he drank too much, but it's not like he's a mean drunk or anything. He's actually a pretty happy and generally entertaining drunk, though he gets a little handsy," Kurt hadn't needed to know that, "he's just rather cranky the next morning. If I had known he was going to be such an ass, I wouldn't have set up the brunch. I thought he was going to at least _try_ to act civil."

"Have you ever considered the possibility he's not exactly endeared to the idea of your ex being at the wedding?"

Blaine rolled his eyes at the suggestion. "I told Jon _everything _about our relationship, and even though I didn't exactly _ask_ him about inviting you to the wedding, when I brought it up before he left on Friday night, he seemed to be fine with it. He was just cranky." There was obviously no convincing Blaine that his fiancé had any faults... which wasn't exactly a good thing. "So, why were you out with Elizabeth?"

"We were planning your bachelor party." That was all that needed to be said. Blaine grinned and hopped over a few chairs to hug him.

"Thank you." Neither of them said anything else on the matter. Blaine didn't mention that it had been a source of friction in their house since the decision had been made, and Kurt didn't mention that he hated Jonathan for stealing the bachelor party that was rightfully Blaine's, thrown by the tenor's own brother. They didn't need to say it; it was already out in the open. "I do have one more thing I could use your help on."

"Oh?"

"We have some last minute details to hammer out for the wedding." Kurt suppressed a sigh. Blaine couldn't be more wedding-focused if he tried. "We're having trouble deciding on a wedding song."

"Don't you guys already have a song?"

Blaine laughed. "For someone as musically inclined as I am, it is surprising that my life isn't quite as music-centric as it was in high school, but ever since Glee ended I haven't burst out into song in the middle of the hallway." Kurt laughed along, because yes, sometimes their high school had been ridiculously obsessed with random song and dance numbers, and he and Rachel had definitely had the chance to burst into song at NYADA. "So, no, we don't have a song, and we're having an impossible time deciding on one. I want to do something a little more modern-"

"Shocker."

"And Jonathan _insists_ on a semi-classic song that isn't too cliched."

"Does he have a specific song in mind?"

Blaine took a deep breath. "_Come What May_."

"Oh," Kurt said in a breath.

"You can understand..."

"Yeah." They had always joked that would be _their_ wedding song. For Blaine to use it during his marriage to a different man while Kurt watched... it would be the cruelest kind of irony. "What song were _you_ thinking of?"

"_You and Me_ by Lifehouse." That was _really _cliched, but Kurt wasn't going to say anything. "It's not _incredibly_ modern, it's been out for... what, fifteen years? But it's sweet and slow and I think it would make a great wedding song."

"And Jonathan, not so much?"

"Exactly."

Kurt's first reaction was to say, 'it's your wedding, screw him,' but he had a feeling Blaine wouldn't like that reply very much, and that could also prompt Blaine to believe that his sex life with his fiancé was a good alternative topic, which... no.

"What about... _Halo_?" Kurt suggested, thinking off the top of his head. "It's romantic without being gender specific, it's perfectly danceable, I don't think it's _too_ cliched, and yes, it's a little modern, but it would work."

"That would work," Blaine agreed, nodding slowly.

"Trying to figure out how to get Jonathan to agree to it?"

"Yep."

"Just pull out those puppy dog eyes of yours and I'm sure he won't be able to say no." Blaine smiled.

"Probably." Blaine looked over at MacDaddy ring, but then his eyes opened wide. "Shit, I have to go!" Kurt had never heard Blaine swear outside of the bedroom before. Apparently, with old age came a relaxation of Dalton standards. "I'm sorry. See you tomorrow on the train?"

"Definitely," Kurt said, but he doubted Blaine heard him as he rushed out of the park.

* * *

><p>Kurt refused to admit that he was becoming one of those people who had no life outside of work, even as he headed home to do some work. Lunch was in order (he couldn't eat as quickly as the girls did, and he hadn't gotten enough in his system during brunch), and he was just drawing a bath as Rachel called him.<p>

"Hello, irritant."

"_Did you talk about it_?"

"Yes." Kurt refused to stop the process of his bubble bath for Rachel, and he was attempting with medium success to strip and hold the phone at the same time.

"_What did he say?_"

"None of your business."

"_Kurt!_"

"Rachel!" he mocked her. "That conversation is between me and Blaine... and Elizabeth, who was unfortunately eavesdropping from behind the fountain."

"_The fountain?_"

"Bryant Park's Fountain Terrace." Kurt was _not_ feeling guilty as he slipped into his bath. Bryant Park shouldn't really be a big deal if they were both over everything.

"_Bryant Park? Really, Kurt?_"

"It was near the restaurant we went to. Besides, it was Elizabeth's idea!" Okay, that was a lie, but what his crazy friend didn't know about, she wouldn't bother him about.

"_You introduced Elizabeth to Blaine?_" Rachel asked, and she sounded suspicious.

"Yes, aren't I nice?"

"_Why?_" Apparently, Rachel didn't believe in Kurt's good intentions. Kurt didn't exactly blame her.

"Why not?"

"_Maybe because it isn't really necessary for the groom not related to the maid of honor to meet her before the wedding?_"

"I disagree."

"_Kurt..._" Rachel's voice was ridiculously imploring. "_What did you do?_"

"He was lying to Blaine, Rachel!"

"_Kurt! What. Did. You. _Do_?_"

"Jonathan told Blaine that his sister lived in Santa Cruz, California and then snuck away to see her every weekend and lied to Blaine about where he was! Does that seem like the trademark of a healthy relationship to you?"

"_It seems like none of your business to me._"

Kurt snorted. "You're one to talk about sticking one's nose where it doesn't belong, really, you are."

"_I very rarely interfere with weddings. Especially weddings happening within a week!_"

"Very rarely isn't never."

"_That is _so_ not my point_. _Kurt, I know you care about Blaine and you always have, but you can't interfere with his relationship like this. You _just_ reconciled with him, do you really want to ruin that by undermining his upcoming nuptials? I don't know if Jonathan is the best thing for Blaine, I don't, but neither do you. You don't know Blaine anymore, and you certainly don't know his fiancé, so I think you need to back off. Who knows? Maybe he's just having a bad week. Maybe he's nervous about the wedding. You don't know._"

"What exactly is it that you think I'm trying to do here, Rachel?" Kurt asked, because she made it sound like he was sabotaging something that was perfectly fine. It was true he didn't know much about Jonathan or his relationship with Blaine, but he didn't like the tenor's fiancé lying to him or stealing the bachelor party Cooper had probably been planning for years, and he wasn't sabotaging anything anyway.

"_You do realize how jealous you sound, right_?" Rachel asked. "_I don't know if you're just jealous because he's getting married, or you're jealous because it's Blaine, but you're undoubtedly going to do something stupid, and I don't want whatever it is that you do to wreck Blaine's marriage."_

"Why would I want to ruin Blaine's happiness?"

"_Because you don't believe that Jonathan will actually make Blaine happy. But that's not your decision to make, Kurt! It's Blaine's._"

"And I would never take that decision away from him."

"_Keep telling yourself that_." Rachel hang up and Kurt let himself sink below the bubbles for a moment.

Of course he was a little jealous that Blaine was getting married when he hadn't seen anyone seriously since Blaine, but that didn't mean he was jealous of Jonathan or guaranteed to ruin Blaine's wedding. If anything, he was just trying to plan an awesome bachelor's party and make sure that the wedding went smoothly, even if he didn't like Jonathan. And he really didn't.

His phone rang again, and Kurt was tempted not to answer, ready to bet anything he owned that it was Rachel calling to bitch him out again about her completely illogical claims he was jealous of Jonathan marrying Blaine. He knew it would be so much worse later if he didn't answer, though.

"What?"

"_Well, that's a lovely way to answer the phone. Is that how you sound when Blaine calls_?" She was teasing, hopefully.

"Elizabeth. Lovely to hear from you. It's been so long."

"So much sass. I have an idea for Blaine's bachelor party, and I think you'll love it."

"I'm listening."

* * *

><p>Monday morning was possibly the most lethargic Kurt had been since high school. He trudged into work about ten minutes late (not that Is even noticed, too busy setting up the issue that was supposed to be topped by the cover he had to have designed by the end of the day), and he drowsed through most of the morning, glad he had spent time on the cover the day before.<p>

The reason for his fatigue was Elizabeth. They had been up for a good portion of the night hammering out details of an _amazing_ bachelor party that would be perfect for Blaine on Friday night, and then he'd worked on the cover after that, wide awake on excitement and adrenaline. It was hard to believe that Blaine was getting married on Saturday, but at least they would be sending him off in style.

"Southbound today," Blaine said casually as Kurt sat next to him on the subway.

"Oh?" What could Blaine be doing below 42nd?

"This is possibly the most roundabout route ever, but I was wondering if you would like to come with me to the 404."

"The place you're getting married? In West Midtown?" There was no logical route between the 7 and West Midtown.

"404 10th Avenue, yes. Don't worry, I have a plan, but it does involve Grand Central." Kurt groaned.

"Not again."

"The 7 to Grand Central and onto the 4 to Union Square and onto the L to 14th Avenue and onto the A headed for 34th Street-Penn Station. Sound good?"

"Why exactly am I following you to the ends of the earth?" Kurt asked, but that definitely wasn't a no. Not even close.

"Because I have to pick out a wedding singer and I love Jonathan, but he's completely tone deaf. I got him to agree on _Halo_ for our first dance, thank you for the suggestion, but we still need to pick a singer and a song for the... entrance part," Blaine finished rather lamely.

"Aw, you mean Cooper doesn't get to walk you down the aisle?" Kurt teased his ex about one of Cooper's suggestions from a million years ago.

"Shut up," Blaine said with a laugh, "don't encourage him. Anyway, I'm auditioning a handful today, and I wanted to show you where the wedding was because I'm willing to bet you don't spend much time in Midtown."

"Theatre District or bust," Kurt agreed. "You could have just asked me to meet you at Penn Station."

"But that wouldn't have been nearly as fun. I've been on almost every subway line in the city today." Kurt raised an eyebrow at his friend. "It's been a weird and long day, but I've finally met the full wedding party and confirmed flowers and caterers, and... I had no idea how stressful this process would be."

"You should try doing it in two weeks."

"I still have no idea how you did that."

"It did help that I didn't have to fly many people in."

"Very true. Anyway, will you come to the auditions with me? Jonathan is working and I just want a second opinion. Wedding decisions make me nervous. But I understand if you want to go on to Bleecker Street and go home."

"No, I'll come." Kurt didn't say what he was thinking. Why did he and Blaine have to come up with the wedding dance, rather than Jonathan and Blaine? Why did he have to be the one to introduce Blaine to Jonathan's sister? Why was he helping Blaine pick out a singer instead of Jonathan? He had only been a part of this process for a few days and he was already making decisions. It was like _he_ was the one getting married, only he wasn't getting anything out of the planning.

"Great. I've been stressed about this for weeks. Wes even volunteered to get all the old Warblers back together, in full uniform, might I add, if I couldn't find anyone, that was how much I complained and stressed, but I have friends in the music world and Jonathan got suggestions from his co-workers, and I've already auditioned quite a few, but I haven't found one I really like and now it's only five days until the wedding and-"

"Blaine!" Kurt cut off his rambling. "Calm down. I'm sure you'll find the perfect wedding singer, even if you have to drag Adam Sandler out of retirement." That made Blaine laugh and calm down.

"I really don't want Robbie going all _Casualty of Love_ on my wedding, thanks all the same," Blaine said with a smile. "I think after today, the only thing I have to worry about is picking the wedding rings up tomorrow, and I have no idea how I'm going to do that."

"What do you mean?" Shouldn't they already have their wedding bands?

"We mixed up our sizes on the form, which means he fits my ring and I fit his, which wouldn't be a big deal if they weren't engraved. I sent them to get resized, and I'm supposed to pick them up tomorrow, but Florence + the Machine, as well as all their producers and agents and other musical annoyances, are flying in from their tour in _Singapore_ to meet with me, so we're meeting on the West Coast and I leave for my six hour flight at eight in the morning, which means I'll get there at two our time, which is really eleven their time, and our meeting is at noon, and it'll probably take two to three hours of contract signing and other things, which means I'll leave at three their time, which is six our time, and then get back here at around midnight our time. Unless I go get those rings at four AM..." Blaine sighed and put his head in his hands.

"Where are they getting resized?" And yet again, Kurt was stepping into the dutiful role of backseat fiancé.

"Tiffany's." Kurt whistled before he could help it. Yes, he knew Blaine had family money, and Jonathan certainly made a lot with his job, but still. "It was the nearest jewelry store that was given great reviews on customer service," Blaine explained away with a shrug.

"I could take the F from 42nd Street to 57th Street and pick up the rings on my lunch hour." Kurt tried not to sigh. Why was he doing this? Because he was an idiot, and he was trying to prove to his ex-roommate that he wasn't jealous. Logically, this was beyond the realm of what an ex should be doing for their former partner's wedding.

"You may be the best person in the history of ever," Blaine said, grabbing him in a hug, and Kurt could tell just by how tight the tenor held him how stressed out he was, and the countertenor couldn't renege on his offer, even if he wanted to. He would just grab lunch at the Starbucks on that block.

"You're welcome," Kurt muttered, trying not to sound too gruff. Not that he could really pull gruff off.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I'm sorry this is a day late, I was very tired yesterday, and I forgot. More Friday :)**

**Reviews are Love.**


	4. The Four Big Conversations

Kurt and Blaine spent the rest of their little adventure on four subway lines talking about Blaine's potential setlist opening for Florence + the Machine. The tenor was obviously really excited about the opportunity, talking about a mix of popular cover songs and his own songs (none of which Kurt had heard. He would have to ask about Blaine's music at some point… or just look him up). They almost missed their train at Grand Central Station because Blaine was too focused on what he was saying to pay attention to his feet, but after that their trip was smooth.

They arrived on a pretty busy corner that looked like any other area of Manhattan, but as they headed down 34th, it became less urban and more high-rise. There were more people driving than walking around, which really said something about the area. They took a left onto 10th Ave, and the most urban thing within sight was a McDonald's. They passed through the intersection with 33rd, and they were in the Hudson Yards district when Blaine stopped Kurt. "Here." He stopped in front of what was at least a fifteen story high-rise, with a double door that proclaimed it was in fact 404 10th Avenue in letters that looked like they lit up at night. It wasn't exactly what Kurt had expected. "Come on." Blaine still sounded excited, so Kurt decided not to pass judgment yet.

He had definitely made a good call. 404 was _gorgeous_ inside, completely modern, all chrome and colored lighting. Even the white reception desk had a purple backlit 404 logo on it. "Go right ahead, Mr. Holloway-Anderson," the receptionist said absentmindedly, barely looking up from her job.

"I'm guessing you've been here a lot?"

"I get nervous. Shut up. Come on." Blaine took Kurt's hand and led him to a chrome elevator that took them up to the tenth floor. "This is where the reception will be."

Kurt's jaw dropped. They had emerged onto a balcony, but Kurt was staring downwards. Two sets of stairs on opposite sides of the balcony led down to a bar area, which then had a set of half-stairs leading down to a wide open space Kurt assumed would be the dance floor, which was partially underneath the balcony. Admittedly, the room wasn't set up yet, all white rounded stairs and banisters, and a small black and white wall of glass that made the bar area feel slightly separate from the dance floor. The medium-dark wood of the bar and the forest green wall it was set against were the only things in the room not white or black. The wall of the ballroom that didn't look out onto the rest of the space was solid windows, and Kurt didn't think the view would be all that pretty until he realized they were high enough to see the river. As polluted as the Hudson River was, it still sparkled in the sunlight.

The place was absolutely stunning. "Wow," was all Kurt could bring himself to say, and Blaine smiled.

"The balcony will hold most of the tables, with some lining the railing of the bar area that looks out over the dance floor. I love that it's all white and glass and stone," Kurt hadn't even realized the floor they were standing on was white stone, as were the stairs, "it's so... modern and brilliant and perfect."

"I would say."

"The glass screens will be lit up with that stereotypical babies to wedding collage, as will these windows when it gets dark, backlit with blue or purple I was thinking. I have a bunch of ideas for table designs, but those will all be finalized when the place gets set up on Friday morning-"

"Make sure you have Friday evening free," Kurt remembered to remind him. "We're stealing you for your bachelor party."

"I'm equal parts excited and terrified. Anyway, as we stand here talking, there is a gaggle of interested singers standing on where the dance floor will be placed, made of gray slip-resistant tiles grouted with green light." Blaine was making his reception sound amazing. They were getting their rings resized at Tiffany's, married at St. Patrick's, and having the reception _here_. The couple had really gone all out.

"I don't even want to think about how much this is costing you," Kurt muttered.

"No, you really don't," Blaine said with a laugh. "It's not like we don't have the money for it, especially with the support of both our families." The Andersons too? Why was Jonathan good enough for Blaine when Kurt wasn't?

He wasn't supposed to be thinking thoughts like that.

"Anyway, shall we go audition them?" Blaine asked, waiting patiently while Kurt had an internal debate about his place in the wedding.

"Absolutely," Kurt said, resolving to get out of his own head and having a feeling it would go as well for him as it normally did for J.D. It might last about twelve hours. If that.

"Hey, everyone." Blaine must have just picked struggling artists of the street, because there was no better explanation for the smorgasbord of people that were standing in front of people. There were full bands and boy bands and solo acts with and without instruments, girls and boys and every race that could be found in New York City. It was exactly what Kurt expected of Blaine, created by Blaine. "So, we're just going to power through everyone as fast as possible. Please try to streamline your song to less than three minutes. First up, Carolyn Caverly."

* * *

><p>In the three hours that had been spent auditioning various acts, Kurt had yet to see someone they would let into their high school Glee club, never mind sing at Blaine's wedding. No wonder there were so many starving artists in New York City, some of them just shouldn't be artists. Kurt had so far heard everything from pop to hip-hop to Broadway to classics be massacred at the hands of Blaine's smorgasbord. Where had he even found these people?<p>

"Is that everyone?" Blaine finally asked. Several acts had already left, having played, and Kurt was almost asleep in his seat (thankfully, Blaine had pulled two of those director's chairs from somewhere, and a clipboard. He was definitely prepared).

"Wait!" A girl practically tripped down the stairs to the dance floor, and she reminded Kurt a little of that girl Spencer from Pretty Little Liars, which he had stopped watching because he didn't feel like working out all the story lines in his head. "I'm sorry I'm late, but I had class... is this the wedding auditions?" she asked, looking around, and it didn't surprise Kurt that she was amazed by the people Blaine had given try-outs.

"Yeah, step right up," Blaine said, gesturing to the little make-shift stage of boxes that had been there when Blaine and Kurt arrived.

"Hi, I'm Stephanie Berlanga, and I will be singing _Enchanted_, by Taylor Swift."

"Are you cutting it down any? I love the song, but it's six minutes long."

"Um, I can," she said hesitantly. She pulled out a fairly beautiful acoustic guitar and was clearly rearranging the song in her head as she started to play the introduction.

Kurt and Blaine probably spent a few good minutes after her performance just staring at her in shock, until she was so uncomfortable that she said, "Thank you," and exited the stage. Blaine literally fell out of his chair he was in such a rush to get to her.

"You are _amazing_," he complimented her. "This is going to be my wedding, and I would _love_ it if you sang that song in the beginning."

"You're auditioning acts for your own wedding?" she asked with a smile. "That's very… unusual."

"He's a very unusual person," Kurt commented, having followed Blaine at a much more reasonable place.

"Well, I would be more than happy to play this song at your wedding, and I hope you two are very happy together." She was still smiling, but the room had kind of frozen as both of them processed what she had just said.

"No-"

"We're not getting married-"

"I'm not his-"

"He's not my-" They both floundered for words simultaneously. Stephanie blushed.

"Oh. I'm so sorry. I just assumed with the fact that you're auditioning people together, and the way you just... I don't know. I'm terribly sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine," Blaine cut her off, apparently having just realized that Stephanie was babbling because she was afraid she had just lost her gig. "Anyway, my wedding is at St. Patrick's Cathedral on Madison at four o'clock, and the reception is here at six."

"Will I be singing any other songs?"

"I have to talk set lists with my fiancé, who is _not_ Kurt," Blaine stressed again, "but I will call you by..." Blaine looked at his watch. "Damn, it's late. I'll call you early on Wednesday to let you know about any other potential songs. And if you don't know it, don't worry, our set list is completely malleable. Also, our first dance is going to be _Halo_, if you want to sing that."

"I will definitely learn that on the piano," she said with a nod. "Here's my business card, and thanks so much for the opportunity."

"No problem," Blaine said, shoving her card in his pocket. "You're the best performer we've seen all day."

"Not that that's a high bar," Kurt muttered, and Blaine elbowed him.

"We, and by we I mean me and my not-Kurt fiancé, will be in touch shortly."

"Thank you," she said again, and all of the acts were starting to clear out as she left, clearly realizing they had been upstaged.

"And that is why open auditions are awesome," Blaine said with a smile as soon as Stephanie was out of earshot. "I'll have a _ton_ of music contacts at my reception, which she'll sing at, and she may be able to start a career from that imaginary stage." He pointed towards the boxes.

"You must be the farthest from a groomzilla that I've ever met," Kurt said with a laugh. "Even while planning your own wedding, you're thinking about everybody else first."

Blaine shrugged. "It's my nature. Besides, I'm sure when you get married you'll be enough of a groomzilla for the both of us… and the history books."

"_If_, and thanks for the optimism."

"_When_, and it's my strong suit."

* * *

><p>Blaine would be taking the E north to Lexington Avenue, and getting on the 4 at 51st Street headed for home, but Kurt would be taking the A south to West 4th Street and onto the M into Brooklyn, so they didn't have any time to talk except the short walk to Penn Station.<p>

"I'm dying to know what Jonathan had to say about hiding you from Elizabeth," Kurt said finally as they turned onto 10th Avenue.

"Could your question be any more biased if you tried?" Blaine asked, and shoot. He had finally figured it out. "You don't like Jonathan, do you?"

"I like what you've told me about him, about the proposal and how sweet he is," Kurt hedged, "but I know you always see the best in people, even when there isn't that much to see, and I don't like what I've seen of Jonathan."

"Kurt, you've known him for less than a week." Blaine was getting defensive, Kurt could tell. "I've known him for four years, and I love him."

"I know that, and that's why I decided not to pass judgment." Kurt decided not to bring up Elizabeth's rather harsh description of her own brother.

"Why did _you_ lie to me?"

"I didn't. All I said when you asked was that I didn't like him lying to you, and I still don't. And _you're_ pointedly avoiding that topic, so what happened?"

Blaine sighed. "I don't… I still don't really know. He started by telling me he didn't know she had moved, which was another lie, because she never lived in California. Then he started apologizing to me and telling me he shouldn't have done what he did and…" Blaine's cheeks pinked a tiny bit, but Kurt noticed. "He still never told me _why_, and I don't think he ever will. He can be a little private."

Kurt could picture the scene. Jonathan trying to wriggle his way out of troubles with false innocence and then fake apologies, begging and groveling, grabbing a wavering Blaine in a kiss before he could ask anymore questions, kissing him and unbuttoning his top, pushing him towards the bedroom... okay, Kurt needed to stop that line of thought.

"The reasons he lied to you shouldn't be something he's private about."

"Well, he is," Blaine snapped, then sighed. "I'm sorry. It's not really you I'm mad at."

"I got that."

"But it's five days before our wedding and I don't want the little things to tear us apart in such a high-stress time. It's so easy for a little fight to get way out of control."

"I don't see how this is a little thing."

"Marriage, finances, children, moving, death, and sickness… those are all the big things. Everything else is little by comparison." Blaine was being terribly logical for someone so emotionally invested.

"Fine," Kurt said. "It's none of my business."

"We'll talk about it after the wedding and the honeymoon. I promise. We have a whole list of things, big and little, to talk about. His parents made us read four harsh conversations you should have before getting married, which is a Cracked article, and that's what we've been mostly focusing on. Everything else is kind of being way-laid while we focus on our upcoming nuptials." That sounded… ridiculous, but Kurt was working hard not to pass judgment.

"What are the four conversations?" Kurt asked as they turned onto 34th Street, not walking particularly fast to draw out the conversation they were having.

"Exposing your ugly past, which we actually did drunkenly before we started dating, though there were a few most stories we exchanged in the process of our relationship, like family propensities towards disease, food allergies, things like that." Kurt knew all of Blaine's past so well he could write Blaine's biography up to age eighteen, so he could imagine exactly how much fun that had been. "The next one was figuring out what to tell the kids on subjects you bitterly disagree on, like politics and religion and things like that. Jonathan's a little more religious, but we agreed on whatever the best schooling is for the child, regardless of religious affiliations. I mean, we went to Dalton and didn't come out rip-roaring Catholics. He's not insistent about taking the kids to Church, though he wants to teach them a little at home about the Christian faith, which doesn't bother me. They can believe whatever they please, he's not trying to brain-wash them or anything, and we're obviously a huge lesson in tolerance as parents. We're both fairly liberal, but Jonathan's more fiscally conservative, which we figure is something we really won't have to worry about until the kids are old enough to decide for themselves, though we made a promise to never try to convince them one way or another." Why was Blaine telling him all of this? Trying to get him to like Jonathan?

"Seems very logical." They were almost at the station.

"The next one is planning for death, which was... a really hard conversation, especially as young as we both are, but we both made wills, and we can both theoretically provide for children in the event of-We can both cook and clean and do errands, we've been doing our finances together for a while, which will be even easier when all of our finances are joint, etc." Blaine didn't even pause when refusing to actually use the word death in any form again. "In reality this is planning for a divorce, but neither of us want to think about it that way, because death is much more likely." Blaine was making a joke of it, Kurt twist that joke into the idea that Blaine was already considering divorce. He knew it wasn't true.

"The last one was preparing for awkward conversations before they happen, like… well, the example the writer of the article uses is weight gain, like if one spouse gets so fat it turns the other one off." Kurt tried not to laugh picturing Jonathan fat. He couldn't even begin to picture Blaine fat, but it wouldn't bother him anyway. "It's just telling your spouse-to-be how you would want them to handle any serious issue that comes up. That one was pretty fun, actually, we had a lot of laughs about bizarre habits we could both take up." Blaine was smiling again, and it was the first time Blaine had talked for long periods of time about Jonathan and the wedding without rubbing his ring. Maybe having just been in the reception hall made it more real, or maybe Blaine was more used to the idea. Either way, Kurt was happy for him.

"That does sound silly… I can see you being a naturalist at some point." Blaine stared at him for a long moment. "What?"

"That's _exactly_ what Jonathan said." And with that, they both cracked up laughing.

They had both calmed down by the time they reached the station, but they still had a few minutes before the train arrived, time for one last conversation. "You haven't told me anything about the honeymoon," Kurt said, realizing Blaine hadn't mentioned it before.

"Well, that's naughty," Blaine muttered, and Kurt elbowed him. "Sorry, I had to. Anyway, I didn't tell you anything about the honeymoon because I didn't know anything about it. I still don't know much. Jonathan's making it a complete surprise. All I know is we're taking a limo to the Wow Suite at the W Times Square for the night, and then we take another limo to La Guardia at noon to leave on a mysterious flight. Jonathan's even packing my bag for me so I won't know what climate it's in, and he managed all of my appointments for two months after our wedding, so I have no idea how long we'll be there, since I doubt it's actually the full two months." Blaine sounded a mixture of excited and a little annoyed, and completely in love. It was very romantic, Kurt had to give Jonathan that one.

"Wow." And once again, dollar signs swum around Kurt's head.

"Yeah," Blaine said with a smile. "He's being really sweet, but he can also be very stubborn when he decides to, and I have no idea where the reservations or the tickets are hidden. They're definitely not in our apartment."

"They might be at Elizabeth's," Kurt said before he thought about it.

"Kurt…" Blaine started speaking, but whatever he was going to say to chastise Kurt was drowned out by the sound of their trains arriving. "I'll see you on Wednesday," was all he said as he got on the E, abandoning his little lecture.

* * *

><p>Kurt's stomach was grumbling at him as he got on the F train during his lunch hour. The train was crowded with people that wanted to escape their jobs while they could, so he couldn't get a seat, clinging to the bar. Thankfully, 57th Street was only two stops away.<p>

He emerged from the subway right near Starbucks, and his stomach complained again as he walked right past it. The reason _Breakfast at Tiffany's_ was set _outside_ of Tiffany's is that they didn't let people have food in there. He would pick up the rings, and _then_ get lunch. He had plenty of time.

Walking into Tiffany's was always amazing. Everything in there strained even his budget, but it was fun to look at the intricate jewelry, sparkling under the lights designed to create exactly that effect. Kurt walked up to the customer service desk.

"Hello, how may I help you?" the man working the desk asked immediately with a bright smile. Apparently customer service at Tiffany's didn't fool around.

"I'm here to pick up rings that have been resized."

"Name?"

"Holloway-Anderson," Kurt said as someone got in line behind him. Hopefully, those wouldn't take very long.

"Stealing our wedding rings?" The person behind him asked, and he turned around, looking up to find Jonathan. Kurt had been right. He had blue eyes… icy ones.

"Blaine asked me to pick up these rings because he was so stressed about his appointment on the West Coast."

"I am perfectly capable of picking up my own wedding rings on my lunch hour," Jonathan said coldly, and Kurt didn't care what Blaine's fiancé had told the tenor: he was obviously _not_ okay with Kurt's increasing involvement in their wedding.

"Blaine didn't seem to want you to." That came out cruelly, and Kurt was aware of that, but Jonathan made him mad, and being angry made him loquacious. "He _also_ didn't want to use the wedding song you picked out because our friends used to joke that would be our wedding song, and he came to me for suggestions. He _also_ didn't want you auditioning acts for the wedding because you're supposedly tone deaf, so I did that with him last night. He _also_ didn't want to have a bachelor party thrown by your sister, whom you had been hiding from him for four years and _lying_ to him about, might I add, so _I _planned one with Elizabeth, who was _very_ surprised that you had managed to hook someone as great as Blaine with your Scotch-soaked personality!" Kurt snapped, taking the wedding rings from the confused customer service person's hand and rushing out of the store. Hopefully there was no payment involved. Well, that was the part Jonathan could do.

Stupid Jonathan. Everything Kurt had heard about him made the countertenor dislike him, and he wasn't exactly trying to win favors by being cold to Kurt. It's an unspoken rule of engagement (as far as Kurt can tell from sit-coms) that if one's fiancé invites someone one doesn't want at the wedding, you suck it up and be civil to them. That went for exes too, right? It wasn't like Kurt was some stranger. He had been the guy who knew Blaine better than anyone else, for a while.

Stupid Jonathan, Kurt was still thinking to himself as he went through the long line at Starbuck's and got back on the subway, making sure to hide the Tiffany's boxes from wandering eyes. He really wasn't in the mood to get mugged and lose Blaine's wedding rings. Maybe he should have taken a cab.

By the time Kurt got back to work, he had already eaten his panini and had drunk his coffee, but he was still fuming about Jonathan's attitude. Still having about fifteen minutes left of his lunch hour (which now that he was an assistant, really was an hour. When he was an intern, it had been about three minutes), he opened the boxes, since they weren't wrapped and Blaine wouldn't know he did.

The ring box he opened was Jonathan's, the ring inside too big to fit on Blaine's finger. The engraving on the inside of the band went as such: amo te, ad infinitum et ultra. It was equal parts romantic and nerdy (to infinity and beyond? Really, Blaine?), which is exactly what Kurt expected from his ex.

Then he opened the ring that would be Blaine's, because he had a sneaking feeling that Jonathan's engraving wouldn't quite match up to Blaine's. And it didn't. The engraving was: Property of Jonathan Holloway-Anderson 9/15/2018. It was supposed to be cute, but to Kurt it came off as possessive, and it wasn't sweet like Blaine always claimed Jonathan was. And Jonathan, the dick, couldn't even blame this one on Kurt, because they had probably done the engravings long before Blaine and Kurt bumped into each other on the subway.

Stupid Jonathan.

* * *

><p>Since Kurt was more than annoyed with Jonathan and rather concerned about Blaine's stress level, he quickly went on the web and found a wedding checklist to go through, to make sure Blaine wouldn't have any last minute panics. Besides, he didn't have any work anyway. Blaine had covered almost everything, though Kurt wasn't sure about a photographervideographer, the wedding wardrobe, a day-of timeline for all the vendors, drivers, and wedding party, rehearsal dinner, the marriage license, seating, vows, wedding party gifts, etc. No wonder Blaine was nervous. Although, getting married as a woman seemed a lot more stressful, with hair and makeup appointments and dress fittings and such. Kurt focused mostly on the week of the wedding checklist.

Reconfirm arrival times with vendors. Check, Blaine had done that when they had auditioned acts at 404, and at St. Patrick's on his way home.

Delegate small wedding-day tasks: gift-handler, tipper, point-person, etc. Blaine would have to do that.

Send a timeline to the bridal party. Kurt wasn't sure.

Pick up your wardrobe. Wasn't sure about that either.

Check in one last time with the photographer. Wasn't even sure they had one.

Set aside checks and tips for the vendors. Done.

Book a spa treatment. Blaine might actually want one, considering how stressed he is.

Sent the final guest list to the caterer and venues. Check.

Break in your shoes. Kurt wasn't worried.

Assemble and distribute the welcome baskets? Kurt was almost entirely sure they weren't doing that at all, considering how large the wedding was.

Pack for your honeymoon. Semi-check. Jonathan seemed more on the ball than Kurt had originally given him credit for being.

Now Kurt was getting anxious. He understood how Blaine felt.

"Hey, Elizabeth."

"_Don't you have anything better to do than bother me?_"

"If I did, would I have called?"

"_Shouldn't you be at work_?"

"I am at work."

"_Of course. What do you want?_"

"I just wanted to go over some of the details I'm not sure about with you. I'm trying to make this as stress-free for Blaine as possible."

"_Of course you do_." Her sigh came across as a rush of static. "_Hit me_."

"I've honestly considered it, despite your gender."

"_Very funny_."

"I try." Kurt looked down at the list he had been making while going over all the wedding planning Blaine should have been doing for the last nine months. "Photographer?"

"_And videographer, both consulted with and paid for, ready to cover the rehearsal dinner, ceremony, and reception."_

"So there is a rehearsal dinner?"

"_Thursday night._ _What, you weren't invited_?" She sounded a mix of sassy and honestly surprised.

"Shut up. I just wanted to make sure Blaine didn't overlook it. He tends to have faith that everything will go right."

"_That's a terrible attitude to have heading into a wedding_."

"Exactly. Marriage license, wardrobe, and vows?"

"_Taken care of, already fitted, and I don't know about Blaine, but Jonathan's done his. They're doing original ones._" That didn't surprise Kurt at all.

"Small wedding-day tasks: gift-handler, tipper, point-person, etc., and, for that matter, seating?"

"_I'm gift-handler, Cooper's doing all the tipping, and Rachel is point-person, and she already has a finalized seating chart that will ensure no bloodshed. You do realize, of course, that most of these details are my job?_"

"I'm just checking." Kurt continued down his list, making sure not to ask Elizabeth about wedding party gifts. She shouldn't know about those, he would have to talk to Blaine. "Day-of timeline for the venders, drivers, and wedding party?"

"_I… I'm not sure,_" Elizabeth said, and by the sound of her voice she was regretting her sass just a few seconds ago about being excellent at her job as maid of honor. "_I certainly don't have one… I would suggest that to Blaine._"

"I will." Kurt didn't bother to gloat. "Are they doing welcome baskets?"

"_No._"

"When will the tuxes be picked up?"

"_That's my job on Saturday morning, along with Cooper._"

"Speaking of Saturday morning, do you think it would be a good idea for me to get Blaine a spa treatment the morning of the wedding, so he's all de-stressed and groomed for the ceremony?"

"_Sounds perfect. I'll come up with some excuse to ask him if he's doing anything last minute that morning, though he shouldn't be, and you can make it a surprise. I'm sure he'll appreciate it._"

"Excellent."

"_You really do care about him, don't you? Blaine, I mean. I know you don't give a fuck about Jonathan._"

"Is it really that obvious?"

"_I may have just gotten some angry texts from him about you stealing their wedding rings… I just assumed he was being overly dramatic and Blaine asked you to pick them up. It seems like the kind of thing he would do_."

"Figures," Kurt muttered.

"_Don't take it too personally, Jonathan's like this. He's… he's frustrating, to say the least_."

"I already got that, thank you."

"_He can be a good person, sometimes_."

"Now you're just conflicting yourself."

"_Do you think Blaine deserves better_?" How the hell was he supposed to answer that?

"Diplomacy kind of dictates my answer." Elizabeth sighed over the line.

"_Mine, too._ _I can't believe my baby brother is getting married on Saturday_." He had always assumed Elizabeth to be younger (she looked younger), but he didn't comment. "_I guess I'll see you on Friday then?_"

"Yeah."

"_Don't do anything stupid, Kurt, no matter how tempting it may be_." Elizabeth hung up before Kurt could tell her how much she sounded like Rachel.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Oh, look at me, completely forgetting to post this on Friday. I am terribly sorry, I was away from home and forgot my obligation. I promise this will not affect the schedule for the rest of the story, and Chapter 5 will be posted on Friday!**

**Songs used/mentioned:  
><strong>'_Enchanted_' by Taylor Swift  
>'<em>Halo<em>' by Beyoncé

**Reviews are Love.**


	5. A Day About Kurt

_Versace Fall 2018: Donatella Versace has traditionally been rock 'n' roll, denim, tour T-shirts, and all the after-party bondage and chain mail a girl could desire. However, permanently young as she feels, she has decided to age gracefully: more evening wear is becoming a standard of Versace, from pastel suits to cocktail dresses with swooping necklines-_

Kurt was interrupted from his clichéd and un-printable mid-season thoughts about Versace's evolution by a knock on the door. He checked the clock on his computer quickly (12:17, Wednesday, September 12, 2018) before turning to the door with an icy expression. What annoying little intern was interrupting him?

"Hey," Blaine said with a bright smile. "I intended to intercept you on the train this morning, but I realized I have no idea when you come into work, and I couldn't drag myself out of bed until forty-five minutes ago because I seem to have the strangest jet lag. It's going to take me forever to be sleeping normally again, probably until after the wedding and honeymoon." Kurt got the feeling Blaine hadn't been sleeping well anyway.

"I've got time," Kurt said, shutting his laptop. He hadn't been acting terribly productive before Blaine got there, it wasn't that big a deal if he took a little break before trying to come up with an actually decent topic for an article. Maybe he could do the 25 most stylish women on TV or something. People always loved articles like that.

"Shouldn't you be on lunch hour anyway?" Blaine asked, looking up at the clock on his wall.

"That's pretty much just a formality here. You work whatever hours you need to in order to get your articles done. Theoretically we are only given enough work that it can be completed from 9 to 5, five days a week, with a lunch hour, but I've never actually seen someone accomplish it."

"I'm not entirely sure that's legal, but okay. So, I hear from my fiancé that you stole our wedding rings right out of his hand?" Blaine asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, I did. You asked me to pick them up, and I did. How was I supposed to believe that Jonathan could be responsible with them when you didn't?" he asked his ex, who sighed.

"Fair enough. I was just worried that Jon wouldn't have enough time. He never seems to." Blaine shook his head. "Sorry."

"It's fine. How was your West Coast meeting?" Kurt asked as he placed the rings on the desk between them, glad he had been carrying them around so he could give them to Blaine on the train. They were in a plain paper bag, hiding the opulence of Tiffany's boxes.

Blaine's face lit up, whether it was about the rings or his musical career, Kurt wasn't entirely sure. "Great. We signed a contract, so I'm officially opening for Florence + the Machine."

"That's amazing," Kurt said with a smile, because it was an awesome opportunity for any budding musician. "I'm so proud of you."

"Thanks," Blaine said with a shy smile.

"How goes work on the album?"

Blaine pulled a face in response. "A little bumpier on that front, but fingers crossed that will pan out. I really want to have a recent album out when my fan base is large from opening for a major act. If I release it too soon, which won't happen, then the songs will be outdated by the time I'm noticed and they'll never make it to the top 100. If I release it too late, which might happen, then everyone will have forgotten about my performance with Florence + the Machine, and no one will buy it. It's actually a pretty wide window in normal terms, but in the music industry terms, it's practically a jiffy." Blaine snapped his fingers for emphasis.

"Using the proper definition?"

"But of course," Blaine said with a smile. "How goes work on 42nd Street?" Blaine half-sang the term and did a little dance to compliment it. Kurt tried hard not to giggle.

"Excellently, of course," Kurt assured him. "I'm just trying to come up with an article to fill space, which is going _spectacularly_," he said with a roll of his eyes.

"What are these?" Blaine asked, snatching a stack of papers off his desk that happened to be the wedding checklist Kurt had been filling out with Elizabeth's help yesterday. "You seem as worried about my wedding as I am."

"To be fair, your rehearsal dinner is tomorrow, you're setting up for your wedding on Friday morning, your bachelor party is on Friday night, and your wedding is on Saturday."

"I swear I didn't actually tell you all of that."

"Elizabeth and I have been talking."

"Sharing maid of honor duties?" Blaine asked with a smile as he browsed through the wedding checklist. "This actually would have been very helpful to have started about a year ago."

"That's why we always Google something before doing it," Kurt teased in return. "Speaking of your rehearsal dinner-"

"You wanna come?" Blaine asked, and Kurt ignored the hopeful tone of Blaine's voice.

"Not particularly, but I wanted to make sure that you had remembered gifts for the wedding party."

Blaine scoffed. "Of course I did. Cooper would have _killed_ me if he didn't get something out of all this madness."

"What a supportive best man."

"I know, right? I'm starting to regret not picking you. That's what you've been doing all week anyway, and you've done more in the past…" Blaine counted back, Kurt could literally see the wheels in his head turning, "six days than he's done in the last year." If that was how Blaine saw Kurt's contributions, the countertenor wasn't about to burst his bubble by pointing out that most of the things he had done were things Jonathan should have done.

"Glad to help. Also, Elizabeth suggested you create a day-of timeline for the venders, drivers, and wedding party, just to make sure everything goes smoothly."

"I have one on my desk, ready to be photocopied and handed out at the rehearsal dinner, which is pretty much a wedding dry-run."

"That's all I had to say then."

"I've never known you to be speechless," Blaine kidded, putting down the checklist. "Thank you, by the way, for all the things you've done to help."

"No problem," Kurt dismissed the praise, looking at his blank screen so he wouldn't have to meet Blaine's eyes.

"I like your office," Blaine said casually, settling into one of the chairs designated for crushing the interns' spirits with a contented sigh. "Very chic," he continued. "Not very homey, though." Blaine had a point. There were no personal artifacts in Kurt's office besides some books left over from his days at NYADA, some CDs he needed to load onto his work computer (yes, he still had CDs. He wasn't sentimental enough for vinyl, but he had grown up with compact discs!), and his copies of various fashion magazines, including some of Vogue's competitors that he was in charge of keeping a profile on.

"If you like this, you should see my apartment," Kurt said dryly under his breath, hoping that Blaine didn't really hear it. Blaine wouldn't approve of his small, minimalist apartment in Brooklyn with very few personal effects beyond decorations; no pictures would be Blaine's biggest problem.

"I bet," was all Blaine said in response, but he had obviously heard. "So, as the next three days are going to be entirely hectic, peaking in my wedding, I've decided that today should be about you." Kurt looked up, raising an eyebrow at his ex-boyfriend.

"Come again?"

"I talked to Isabella before I walked in here, and I'm happy to announce that you're off for the afternoon." Blaine was looking at him with wide puppy-dog eyes, and Kurt wasn't sure if he could say no. "Let's go do something fun. It'll de-stress me, and it'll get you out of this monotonous hellhole."

"You make my job sound so fun," was all Kurt said, but he powered down his computer.

"Am I not right?" Blaine asked with a grin.

"No comment," Kurt said dryly. "Did you have anything in mind, or was this kind of an off-the-cuff plan?"

"Off-the-cuff," Blaine admitted. "I thought I should do something nice for you, considering that you've probably been the most helpful person in my life leading up to my wedding. This was my solution. But, _I say what about Breakfast at Tiffany's_?" Blaine randomly burst into song. "_She says, 'I think I remember the film, and as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it,' and I say, 'well, that's the one thing we've got.'"_

"You did that purely because you're jealous you haven't gotten the chance to break out in song in public in five years, didn't you?"

"Absolutely," Blaine said with a childish grin.

* * *

><p>"It's much too late in the day to be doing this," Kurt commented as they leaned against the stone front of Tiffany's, almost the exact same place Kurt had stood with Rachel so long ago.<p>

"Well, I would call it _lunch_ at Tiffany's, but it doesn't have quite the same ring to it."

"Or the associated movie and song references?"

"But of course," Blaine said with a grin, taking a bite of the calzone he had gotten off one of the local carts. "This is surprisingly edible."

"Can anything else be said for it?"

"Not particularly," Blaine said as he polished it off. "See, this is the kind of stuff you can't get in Brooklyn." Kurt was tempted to question Blaine's obsession with the fact that he lived in Brooklyn, but that would only lead to a long and heavy conversation, and that was no way to spend one of the last day's before Blaine's wedding.

"You're right. Most of the food in Brooklyn is actually _good_," Kurt teased his ex, who frowned at him as he licked grease off his fingers in a not-entirely-appropriate way.

"You're just jealous because my calzone is literally _dripping_ grease." Kurt looked down and, yeah, there were spots of grease on the sidewalk from Blaine's calzone.

"That's absolutely disgusting."

"The _more_ disgusting part is that I just ate what that fell off," Blaine added. They both stopped looking at the grease spots surrounding Blaine and leaned back against the building. "Is it sad I can't think of anything to talk about?"

"You're not the only one."

"We used to spend _every day_ together, talking about anything that came to mind, but now I'm struggling to think of something to say. We spent so much time together, made so much music, had so many laughs... it's amazing that I can't think of a damn thing that we could do together for fun now."

"Me neither," Kurt admitted, and yeah, it was very sad that he and Blaine had grown this far apart, but it was probably for the best.

"What did we used to do for fun?"

"Glee, movies, music, coffee dates, dinner dates, study dates, and..." Kurt trailed off. Not because he couldn't remember anymore, but because he couldn't think of anything else they had done that was appropriate to suggest to someone getting married in three days.

"Sex," Blaine completed his sentence with a smile, looking down at the ground rather than at Kurt. "_Lots_ of sex. You can say it. It's not exactly something I could forget." Kurt had nothing to say to that. "How come we can't have that much fun now?" Kurt raised an eyebrow at his engaged ex. "_Not_ the sex, but the rest of it!" Blaine objected with a laugh.

"We don't know each other like that anymore," Kurt said, but Blaine snorted.

"Yeah, right. I can still read you like a damn book, Hummel, even if I don't know where you live anymore, and you're still in my head, bitching me out when I say something stupid, even though we've only spent a week together in the last five years. We still know all the important stuff."

"This conversation is getting heavy."

"Always happened, remember?"

"Vividly," Kurt said dryly, because he and Blaine had been almost incapable of having a light conversation, unless Blaine was drunk to the point of needing subtitles.

"Okay, we can't just stand in front of Tiffany's all day, because I think that policeman is eyeing us, wondering if we're casing the joint," Blaine said, pointing to a line of police on horses.

"Hate to break it to you, but the only one checking you out around here is the horse." Blaine cracked up laughing. "Where do you want to go, crazy?"

"Let's take a walk," Blaine said once he had gotten himself under control, waving to the interested horse, who flicked an ear in reply. "I think he likes me."

"Unfortunately, you might have to tell him you're engaged."

"No, it will only break his heart," Blaine declared dramatically. "Besides, we shall probably never see each other again."

"Please don't break out into-"

"_My life is beautiful, my love is pure. I saw an angel, of that I'm sure. She smiled at me on the subway. She was with another man, but I won't lose no sleep on that, 'cause I got a plan_," Blaine began singing in the horse's general direction.

"Congratulations, the police officer riding that horse has officially taken an interest in you." Kurt grabbed Blaine's arm and pulled him up 5th, not particularly desiring to get arrested for Blaine's drunken-seeming behavior while they were both completely sober.

"_You're beautiful. You're beautiful. You're beautiful, it's true. I saw your face in a crowded place, and I don't know what to do, 'cause I'll never be with you._ I'll miss you, Betsy!" Blaine cried about behind him before following Kurt down the street, laughing madly and not seeming bothered that the countertenor was still dragging him.

"You're confusing the horse's gender."

"I don't care, I love Betsy no matter what."

"You're a madman with too much caffeine."

"Like I'm the only one in New York City," Blaine pointed out. "So, where are you taking me?"

"Away from any cops."

"Sounds exciting."

"Central Park is the closest place."

"Maybe we can solve Holden's problem and figure out where the duck's go."

"They stay there. Central Park wrote a whole article about it."

"Ah-_ha_! So you Googled it."

"Shut up."

"Are you sure you don't want to stop and shop?" Blaine asked. "Louis Vuitton... what the hell is Bergdorf Goodman?"

"Neiman Marcus, but nicer."

"Hm. I have no clue what this building is. A La Vieille Russie?" Blaine asked about the next as they turned onto Central Park South.

"Faberge, jewelry, artwork."

"How do you know all this stuff?"

"I work in the fashion industry. I've spent _way_ too much time on 5th Avenue."

"Touché. You're walking kind of fast," he said as they entered Grand Army Plaza.

"I figured the more your little legs have to work to keep up, the less questions you'll ask."

"Too mean," Blaine said with a pout. "Besides, it's not my fault I didn't grow and you're like Jack's damn beanstalk! Amazon man!"

"All the Amazons were women."

"Whatever. And if you thought having to walk fast was going to stop me from talking, you clearly don't know me that well." Despite the fact that it was a Wednesday afternoon in the middle of September, Grand Army Plaza was still crawling with people, mostly college kids who were staring around with wide eyes.

"Carriage rides! Carriage rides!" Drivers were yelling all over. "Carriage rides around Central Park!"

"How about a carriage ride for the lovely couple?" a driver asked them loudly as they walked past.

"No, thank you, we're not-" Kurt said, trying to pull Blaine past all the madness and into the park, which was much calmer around the Pond, but Blaine interrupted him.

"Sure, how much?"

"Three hundred fifty for an hour, including flowers, chocolates, and photography! I'm Dennis."

"Blaine. Done," Blaine said, and the fact he had that much in his pocket in _cash _wasn't exactly surprising to Kurt. Anyone who decided to mug Blaine would assume they had won the lottery, he carried that much cash on him at all times.

"Blaine, we don't-" Kurt wasn't even sure what he was going to object to, the carriage ride or the flowers or the photography or the money Blaine just spent on him, but he didn't get the chance. The driver gestured to a black carriage with red seats, pink flowers already stuck in slots behind the headlights, and a white horse with red accents on its saddle. Blaine pushed Kurt into the carriage and sat down next to him, the driver got in and grabbed the reigns, and they were headed into the park in a carriage. "Why?" Kurt asked once they were on their way.

Blaine, instead of answering, grabbed the chocolates, disposable camera, and flowers from beside the driver, and started taking pictures of other carriages, eating chocolates as he did. "Want one?" he asked, offering the box to Kurt.

"Why?" Kurt asked again, but he did take a chocolate. He wasn't the one getting married in three days, and if Blaine wasn't worried about looking good for his wedding, neither was Kurt.

"I thought it would be fun. It's one of those clichés we promised we would do while we were still together, but we never got around to it."

"You two aren't in a relationship?" the driver asked, sounding surprised.

"Quiet, Dennis," Blaine said, but he wasn't snapping and the driver didn't seem to care. "I just thought we should get a chance to do some of those terrible tourist traps, including this particular cheesy and overly-expensive stereotype." As he was talking, Blaine plopped the dozen roses he had bought in Kurt's lap and picked one out for himself.

"Hey!" the driver objected.

"Not that we didn't get a good deal," Blaine corrected himself before there was a carriage accident.

"Yes," Kurt tried to argue with Blaine, "we agreed on that because carriage rides around Central Park while you're in a _relationship_ are at least semi-romantic. When you're _not_ in a relationship, they're uncomfortable and boring and a little bit smelly. What is this really about, Blaine?"

"Are you sure you're not in a relationship?"

"Be quiet, Ranjit!" Blaine said with an accent and a giggle, and Kurt could see the driver rolling his eyes in one of the tiny mirrors on the carriage. "This isn't _about_ anything, Kurt."

"If you believe the words that come out of your own mouth, then we still know each other as well as we did in high school, and I don't believe what you just said for a second. Tell me I'm wrong."

"This is going to sound strange."

"Everything that's happened thus far today has been strange," Kurt pointed out, and Blaine laughed.

"True, but strange is fun!"

"Blaine, what's up?"

"Do you ever regret that our relationship ended before we got the chance to do all of this kind of stuff?" he asked, eating another chocolate and getting the camera swatted out of his hand for his attempts to take a picture of Kurt.

"I feel like this is a trick question."

"I don't mean our _romantic_ relationship. Remember our pact that every time we went out on the town in NYC, we would do at least one goofy tourist thing until there was nothing left to do? I mean, we did the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, but we never went to the Met, or Ellis Island, or did everything on the Condé Nast Traveler's list of 10 Things _Not_ to Do in New York City! We were going to have so much fun together in this wonderful city we both settled in, yet we never get the chance."

"We did go to the Rainbow Room," Kurt pointed out. He didn't bring up skating in Bryant Park while duetting.

"Yes, but that was for an amazing date, and actually isn't considered that much of a stereotype because it's so expensive and not many people know about the beautiful view."

"It's at 30 Rock. _Literally_."

"Still, doesn't count. This is number five on that list, and while I refuse to go to Magnolia's cupcakes, or take a pedi-cab, or risk my life eating off a hot dog cart-"

"You _just-"_

"Wasn't a hot dog cart!" Blaine argued. "We just... need to do some of those fun things we promised each other we would do, even though we're not a couple. In a way, this will be even better, having fun and seeing the city we've both settled in, in a whole new way. As friends."

"This is another wedding freak-out thing, isn't it?"

"Pretty much."

"Blaine, look at me." Blaine obeyed. "I live in Brooklyn for a reason. I spend most of my days on 42nd street anyway, but I'm not going to a crappy comedy show or cheesy restaurant or Century 21 for the sake of your compulsive need for closure." Blaine sighed, looking away. "I know you're nervous, but Jonathan's a great guy, and by Sunday you'll be blissfully happy."

"You don't believe that," Blaine said quickly. "You think he's an ass."

"I..."

"Before you attempt to poorly deny it," Blaine interrupted Kurt's floundering, "you call him 'Jonathan,' no matter what. Never 'Jon' or 'Jonny,' you don't even refer to him as my fiancé. Just 'Jonathan.' What does that say about what you think of him?"

"It doesn't matter what I believe Blaine, he's _your_ fiancé-"

"Too little too late," Blaine muttered under his breath, and he was rubbing his ring again.

"He _is_ your fiancé, and you love him, and as long as _you_ believe that he's the right person for you, you'll be happy for the rest of your life. But you're not doing a very good job of convincing me that you believe that, never mind persuading me that he actually _is_."

"Carriage rides in Central Park suck," was all Blaine said, and it was _by far_ the bluntest attempt at changing the subject Kurt had ever seen, but he ignored that for Blaine's sake.

"It's not that bad, the view is nice," Kurt argued because he had a feeling they were annoying the driver. In reality, the seats weren't very comfy, the ride was bumpy, they could only go along to major roads of Central Park, the only thing he could really see were other carriages with equally-bored looking friends and couples completely absorbed in each other, and the whole area smelled like horse's excrement. "So, tell me about your album."

Blaine's face lit up. "Well, all the songs are recorded, but for a few I don't like how they were mastered, so there's still a little bit of processing to do. The real trouble is with the record company being idiots and deciding they want to release the album _way_ after when it would create the best market for me, considering I'm officially opening for Florence + the Machine, so I'm having World War 7 with them. Yes, we've already had World Wars 3-6, and we've moved on to 7." Blaine was smiling though, one of the few people on the planet who truly loved their job. "Oh, and I have to do a cover shoot still."

"What are you doing for your cover shoot?"

"I haven't decided yet," Blaine admitted.

"Well, I work in fashion," Kurt said obviously. "I deal with photographers, models, and cover shoots all the time."

"Any suggestions?"

* * *

><p>By the time the carriage ride ended, Blaine had officially decided that he was going to go with an abstract cover because he didn't want to be poked and prodded by costumists, makeup artists, and photographers (not that Kurt could blame him, though he had suggested that Blaine was attractive enough, in an objective way, to make a personal cover worthwhile).<p>

"That was fun, wasn't it?" Blaine said with a little grin as he held out a hand to help Kurt out of the carriage. The driver seemed relieved to be rid of them, riding off as quickly as possible.

"You're incorrigible," Kurt said with a roll of his eyes, but he allowed Blaine to help him down.

"What now?" Blaine asked the question Kurt had been pondering as he explained to Blaine about the photography process, using the same spiel he occasionally had to give to models.

"Well, there are about a hundred stereotypical New York things we could do to mitigate your wedding jitters, or I could go back to work and you can do whatever you do all day."

"Vetoed," Blaine decided. "Besides, I cleared today so we could hang out. Why don't we go back to your place?"

"Buy a guy a drink first," Kurt said automatically, then his brain started working on overdrive. That wasn't appropriate to say to an ex who was engaged, Blaine was going to freak out and not want to spend time with him and tell Jonathan and-

Before Kurt's brain could explode from nerves, Blaine started laughing. "Very funny," he said with a roll of his eyes. "I just wanted to see what you find oh-so-appealing about living in Brooklyn."

"Why are you obsessed with the fact that I live in Brooklyn?" Kurt finally asked, knowing they were headed down a heavy road no matter what. He could predict Blaine's reaction to his large but cold and impersonal apartment, and it wouldn't be positive. "I like my life, I like my job, and I like my apartment, and you can't waltz back into my life after five years and ruin all of that in six days."

"I'm a terrible waltzer," Blaine replied casually, not the least bit concerned that Kurt was snapping at him. Most annoyingly, he was actually a pretty good waltzer. "And what exactly have I done to make you hate your life? I think your job is cool, and I've never even seen your apartment. You're the one who insulted it before I got the chance."

"I hate it when you're logical."

"Are you happy?" Blaine asked him very seriously after a moment's pause, stopping their trek back down Fifth Avenue to the subway. "And don't spew all of that shit about how you're happy about your life and job and apartment. That makes you Jack Donaghy in Season 7 of 30 Rock, trying to break down happiness into basic components of fulfillment. You know we can't do that. So, be honest with me. Are you happy?"

Kurt stared at the ground for a long second. Having Blaine back in life was amazing, but Blaine knew him too well, and thus he knew the answer to that question, probably better than Kurt did. Kurt spent way too much time at work and thinking about work, he didn't really have a life. Kurt loved the idea of the fashion industry, but hated his position in it. And his apartment was beautiful and minimalistic and ideally located, but it wasn't the little apartment in Manhattan he had dreamed of for the first eighteen years of his life. "I think you know the answer to that."

"I think you do, too," was Blaine's very courteous reply.

"Are _you_ happy?" Kurt asked him, turning the tables as quickly as he could, before he got a life lesson from his ex-boyfriend, who was in a committed and loving relationship that was about to culminate in marriage, had his dream job, spent time with friends and family and nights out on the town, and had a brownstone on the Upper East Side with someone he loved. Blaine had everything, but Kurt still thought he knew the answer.

"I'm getting married on Saturday," Blaine said, as if he were indignant.

"That's not an answer."

"I know," Blaine said with a sigh. "And yeah, I think I am. I mean, I'm _stressed_ and _overwhelmed_ and a little bit terrified, but I think by Sunday, I will be honestly and genuinely happy."

"I'm glad." They stood in silence for a few minutes before Blaine started laughing. "And you've officially lost it."

"This _sucks__,_" Blaine said, still laughing.

"Pardon?"

"We can't get through an afternoon without having a serious conversation, and we're supposed to be doing something _fun_ and de-stressing. This is _not_ part of my definition of fun," he said, starting up their walk again and bumping Kurt's shoulder with his like he used to. "I really miss having you around. I think you're the only person who gets every strange and outdated reference I make and can either shoot it back or crack up laughing. Not even _Jon_ can do that. For our first anniversary, I'm making his present to me that he has to watch and memorize the entire Scrubs series, even the terrible ninth season."

"You've definitely had too much coffee," Kurt said decisively. "Seriously, how much have you slept during the last week?" Exactly how much was Blaine dependent on coffee at this point? Kurt knew wedding jitters and doubts were normal, but Blaine was near-self-destructive over what was supposed to be the happiest day of his life. Was Blaine really happy?

"Who cares?" Blaine asked with a slightly-hysterical laugh. "We're not supposed to be talking about stressful things, remember?"

"I agree," Kurt said slowly, starting to realize exactly what kind of shape Blaine was in. "We can go see my apartment and hang out, okay?"

"Sure," Blaine said with a grin, and continued walking with a skip in his step. He was either over-caffeinated or over-tired, and either way, it wasn't healthy.

* * *

><p>Thankfully, the M had a stop a little way down Fifth Avenue, and they didn't have to walk very south of Central Park before they got on the subway. "Did you read our inscriptions?" Blaine asked, and Kurt was reminded that the tenor still had the rings from his impromptu lunch visit.<p>

"Yes," Kurt admitted.

"I'm not supposed to read Jon's, but I really want to," Blaine admitted, pulling out one of the little boxes to stare at it. "He's such a goofball and a sweetheart, I can't imagine what he might have written."

Kurt didn't say anything. He knew exactly what Jonathan had written, and he didn't consider it goofy _or_ sweet, unless it was some sort of inside joke Kurt didn't understand. And Blaine's fiancé couldn't blame the possessiveness on Kurt, because they had probably done the inscriptions _long_ before Kurt and Blaine had reconnected. "I won't tell," he decided on once he realized Blaine was waiting for an answer.

Blaine stared at the box for a few seconds. "No," he said finally. "I'd feel guilty the length of our entire marriage," he added with a laugh. "My whole life," Blaine said more quietly. He didn't sound certain.

"Are you okay?" Kurt asked in the same soft tone. It was ridiculous to be having such a quiet conversation on a loud subway full of people that don't give a crap about what they were saying, but he didn't want to break the moment. Maybe Blaine would finally be honest with him.

"I think I'm starting to speak conductor," Blaine said at a normal volume as the conductor announced the 34th Street stop. There went that hope.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Oh, look at me being a terrible updater. I'm sorry, this is two days late. However, I received some exciting career news on Friday and my mind has been preoccupied ever since. I sincerely apologize, and *swear* that next Friday, I will really update on time. And next chapter is my favorite chapter :)**

**Songs used:  
><strong>'_Breakfast at Tiffany's_' by Deep Blue Something  
>'<em>You're Beautiful<em>' by James Blunt

**Reviews are Love.**


	6. Drunken Decisions

Blaine's face was stony. Perfectly stony. Not displaying a single emotion. He also didn't say anything… and he clearly wasn't being very open-minded. "It's… minimalistic," Kurt said finally in defense of his apartment.

"That's a word for it," Blaine said quietly.

"All my personal effects were stolen by a crazy guy Rachel invited into our apartment," Kurt tried to explain away, since it actually _had_ happened once, but Blaine's eyes turned from Kurt's apartment to his face and then back to his apartment. Apparently, the tenor didn't believe him. "It's actually a fairly good size."

Blaine's sound of confirmation was so quiet it was almost nonexistent.

"It's very well decorated."

"That's the only thing you've said so far that I agree with," Blaine said finally.

"There's no need to be judgmental."

"Since this is Brooklyn," Blaine said with a sigh, finally stepping into the apartment, "I don't suppose there are any good bars around, because this _is_ Brooklyn, but this place is making me depressed enough to want to go to one. And I don't drink much."

"Not everyone can have brownstones, Blaine."

"You could," Blaine said flatly, and Kurt couldn't deny it. "You have the money and the connections to get some of the best Manhattan real estate on the market, even some places _I_ couldn't get with my extensive trust fund and rich fiancé and burgeoning music career." Kurt couldn't argue. Blaine sighed again. "So, since this apartment drives me to drink, I don't suppose you have any beer?"

Kurt did, as a matter of fact, and he grabbed two cold ones as Blaine sat on the couch. "My apartment's not that bad."

"You will never convince me that this apartment makes you happy," Blaine said, popping off the top of his beer with the bottle-opener Kurt handed him, "in the same way I will never convince you that Jon's a good guy." Kurt didn't say anything; he didn't want to have serious conversations either. "You _are_ right though. This is pretty big for a studio. How's the rent?"

"Almost three thousand a month, but that's manageable enough," Kurt said with a shrug.

"_More_ than manageable for you," Blaine said, but he didn't push it, so that was hopefully the last sly comment he was going to make about Kurt's rather lonely-looking and pathetic, if beautiful, apartment. "I had to pick out all the prayers and blessings with the justice of the peace today, and as I stare at your ceiling, by far the most interesting and personalized thing in your apartment-"

"Very funny," Kurt said dryly as he popped open his own beer. His ceiling was perfectly white, with no blemishes.

Drinking around Blaine probably wasn't the best idea (his best friend would be able to get _anything_ out of him if he didn't keep his guard up), but if he didn't drink he would probably _kill_ the tenor, so it seemed worth it.

"I'm starting to doubt all of my decisions," Blaine finished his sentence without regard for Kurt's comment.

"Blaine, it's fine. You've always been very romantic and articulate, I'm sure you chose good and touching prayers and blessings," Kurt said as he took his first sip.

"You don't want to talk about the wedding, do you?" Blaine asked, not even looking over at Kurt. It was amazing how he could pick up on the slightest touch of annoyance in Kurt's voice, and also terribly irritating in and of itself.

"Not particularly," Kurt admitted.

"I'm sorry," Blaine said with a sigh, downing about half of his beer in one chug. "Planning it has been the central focus of my life for so long that I think I'm actually beginning to forget about things I _used_ to do in my free time."

"Like?" Kurt asked, seeing a way to get out of wedding talk until Blaine decided he was too tired and hopefully went home and slept.

"Writing," Blaine admitted. "I haven't been able to write anything since Jon asked me to marry him, I've been so focused on this. Thank anything-and-everything-above that I had a whole store of written songs that I had never recorded, or I wouldn't be able to put out a new album right now. Hopefully I'll be able to start writing again after the honeymoon, when I have more free time, because my stores are dangerously depleted. If this album sells well, providing the company doesn't actually screw me over in timing, they'll want a fast follow up, and if I can't write there won't be one and my market will be as rough as when I was a new act… maybe worse." Was that what had been worrying Blaine for the last few weeks, what was keeping him up at night, what led him to be so tired he had over-caffeinated into hysteria?

"I'm sure you'll be able to write. You'll have just gotten _married_. If you don't have a fuckton of new emotional situations to write about, you're not doing it right," Kurt replied casually, realizing that he himself was bringing up the wedding but hoping his innocent comment wouldn't turn into a segue.

"Fair enough," Blaine said. "Maybe I'll write one of those annoying, catchy engagement songs that are on the radio forever and get people interested in the artist writing them."

"When has that ever happened?"

"Train. Jason Derülo. Kelly Clarkson. Colbie Caillat… sort of."

"They all had careers before."

"Oh shush," Blaine insisted, then started giggling. He had finished his beer. "You only swear when you're tipsy."

"Well, I pray to anything that you're not tipsy," Kurt commented. "How many times have you gotten drunk since we met?"

"Well, twice when we were close, about a thousand between then and now," Blaine admitted.

"And for all of those thousand and two times, how did it go?"

"Never well," Blaine admitted with that same giggle.

"Right."

"I need another beer."

"Oh, boy."

* * *

><p>"Do you remember the beginning of our relationship?" Blaine asked as they sat on the couch and watched Friends reruns that were over twenty years old. "We used to have to do this <em>all<em> the time. Your dad wouldn't let me in your room, even with the door open and Finn next door, so we would have to sit on the couch and watch TV and do homework and pretty much act like nothing but friends."

"He warmed up to you… eventually."

"I probably caused that, you know," Blaine said, ignoring Kurt's statement with ease. "The initial distrust."

"How so?"

Blaine started giggling. "If I had told you this then, you would have killed me, and you still might, but do you remember that really awkward week that the Warblers were trying to be sexy?"

'Gas pains.' The words reverberated around Kurt's mind, even though he had come a long way from teenaged insecurity about his body. "Distinctly," Kurt answered.

"Well, sometime during that week, and I can't remember when because it was a long time ago and I've lost count of the number of beers I've had-"

"We're going to run out soon," Kurt admitted. He'd only had three and there had been quite a few in the fridge, which meant Blaine was _extraordinarily_ drunk, as someone who was a pretty bad lightweight.

"Good," Blaine said. "Anyway, during that week, I went and talked to your dad in the shop and told him that he should talk to you about sex because you two were so close and there was no way you were ever going to find out about anal at McKinley _or_ Dalton, though there really should be gay sex ed there. There's enough going on to warrant it."

"You're right."

"I know."

"Well, about that too, but also about the fact that some… six? seven? years later, I still might kill you. You definitely, _completely_ convinced my father you were trying to get in my pants."

"Uh-oh."

"Do you have any idea how _awkward_ the conversation that provoked was? I _still_ remember it, _verbatim_, it was that uncomfortable, and thus seared itself forever into my brain."

"Needed to happen," Blaine said without remorse. "You wouldn't let _me_ talk to you about sex. Every time I tried, you started blushing and objecting."

"That's because every time you started trying to explain, I started picturing _us_ doing what you were describing, and it would have become uncomfortable really fast."

"Or it would have kick-started our relationship a week early," Blaine added, and that was kind of a good point.

"I never would have made the first move."

"I know," Blaine replied. "To be honest, for a while there I was waiting for you to make a move, but I realized you never would."

"Why were you waiting for me to make a move?"

"Because of Karofsky," Blaine answered, so honestly that Kurt knew he was thoroughly drunk. "I thought if I kissed you and accidentally surprised you, you would forever associate our first kiss with that and never want to be with me."

"That's… probably pretty realistic," Kurt said honestly, because even though Dalton had made him stronger, he was still _terrified_ of any unexpected physical contact back then. If Blaine had kissed him out of the blue, in a moment that it wasn't _extremely_ obvious Blaine was going to, Kurt probably would have panicked, and they never would have dated. "It's strange to think that we might never have dated because of that."

"Imagine how our lives would be different," Blaine said with a laugh, but then the air was somber.

"Probably not by very much," Kurt answered, and it was the most honest thing he had ever said.

"Woah," Blaine muttered. It wasn't something Kurt wanted to think about either.

"Are you sure you're not high instead of drunk?"

"Shut up," Blaine said. "The point is… I was scared, and I'm sorry."

"Are you apologizing for something that happened seven or eight years ago?"

"Yeah," Blaine said without explanation. "And I think we _would_ be different if we hadn't dated."

"How so?"

"Personal growth. You were _so_ afraid of sex when we first met, and by the end we were doing ti _daily_," Blaine said with a chuckle. "And as for me… I ended up at McKinley and got my head thoroughly deflated and… I think our lives would be _entirely_ different if we hadn't dated. I mean, even as young as we were, that's a pretty big portion of our lives we spent together, like _five percent_, and it was a pretty transformative year too."

"You do realize we're not twenty anymore, right? Which means it's less than five percent."

"Shut up. You get my point."

"I do."

Blaine was quiet for a few seconds. "Imagine how it would have been if we had gotten together a few weeks after we met. We would have had an amazing first Valentine's Day…"

"You wouldn't have kissed Rachel…"

"Regionals wouldn't have been as awkward…"

"I probably would have returned to McKinley earlier…" Kurt admitted.

"And I would have followed you immediately," Blaine returned. The tenor rubbed his eyes, placing down his empty beer bottle next to the others on Kurt's coffee table. "Do you think we would still be together?" he asked, the same thing Kurt had been wondering.

"No," Kurt said honestly. "If we had gotten together sooner, I think we would have broken up sooner too."

"Justify."

"We were too co-dependent. That's why, when I left for New York, you were so… needy, and I wasn't around to fulfill those needs, so you found them somewhere else. It has nothing to do with the fact that we spent so much time together as friends; it probably would have been worse if we had been dating for longer. I think the real problem was that we were each others' first boyfriends. We had no idea what was healthy for a relationship, and we _both_ ended up a little clingy and relationship-centric."

"Fair enough," Blaine replied. "But we would have been together for almost two years when you left for New York. I probably would have asked you to marry me before you left."

"I probably would have said yes," Kurt continued. "But you still would have cheated on me. We still would have broken up. I still would have said no, only it would have been the second time. And we will still end up on this couch, so many years later."

Blaine was silent for about a minute. "Are you sure we're out of beer?"

"I may have two more," Kurt said, standing up to check.

"Do you think Jon's right for me?" Blaine asked, and Kurt froze on the spot. How was he supposed to answer that?

"Blaine, I don't really know him."

"You know me. You know me better than anyone besides Jon, maybe even better than Jonny. Describe to me who you think is perfect for me, the man I should marry."

"Blaine, it's been a long time since I've known you that well."

"I thought we established earlier that that's a blatant lie," Blaine said flatly, and Blaine was terribly honest when he was this drunk. An only-mildly-drunk Blaine was much more fun.

"Fair enough," Kurt said. "I'll make you a deal, I'll try to come up with a list of what you need in your perfect man if you tell me what's been keeping you up. And 'stress' is a flat-out lie, so don't try it."

"I just told you," Blaine said with a yawn. "I know it's normal to have wedding jitters, and I know I love Jonathan, and I want to marry him, and I want to be married and have kids and start a life, but I'm not sure he's the one. I know I sound like an alarming mix of Ted Mosby and Elliot Reid, which seems like an ironic combination, but I don't want to be a statistic in five years because all the little things about Jonathan that are bothering me now have turned into big problems and our marriage is over because of the cop-out of 'irreconcilable differences' and our kids grow up in a broken home, or we never have any, and then I'll be jaded and bitter and never find that someone, that _perfect_ someone. I love Jonathan, but I want to be so in love that I'm stupid and fearless and reckless and blissfully happy, and I used to feel that way, but I don't anymore."

"Blaine, that just means the relationship is real now, and if you still want to be with him even when it's hard, you'll make it."

"I'm not sure I can say, 'for better or for worse,' and mean it," Blaine said finally.

"Then take that out of your vows," Kurt suggested, and his ex-boyfriend rolled his eyes. "Nothing's changed, Blaine," Kurt tried to convince him. Why was he trying to convince Blaine to blindly marry an asshole? Well, he was drunk (he was more of a lightweight than Blaine, and that was saying something) and he was starting to feel guilty… he just wasn't sure what for. "Jonathan's still the same man you fell in love with, and if you didn't break up when you discovered he lied to you _days_ before your wedding, you can probably make it."

"What if I can't write?" Blaine segued randomly. "I used to be so ridiculously, articulately in love with Jon that he inspired half the songs on my new album, even the cover songs, or at least the emotion behind them. Why can't I write in the portion of my life when I should be happiest? Maybe I don't love Jon enough. Why can't I write, Kurt?"

Kurt didn't get a chance to answer before Blaine chugged both of the beers still on the coffee table.

* * *

><p>Kurt was woken up by a very angrily-ringing phone, and as he slowly woke up, he realized it was Blaine's, ringing like crazy with Jonathan's name (written in the phone as 'Jonathan Holloway-Anderson,' much to Kurt's disgust) flashing across the screen. This brought back dim memories of the end of last night, in which Blaine had chugged <em>both<em> of Kurt's last two beers, made some very raunchy jokes pertaining to Friends reruns, and passed out on the couch next to him. Kurt had fallen asleep quickly after, too tipsy to walk to his bed. As he sobered up (he wasn't hungover very badly, but he knew Blaine would be terribly light and sound sensitive upon awakening), he decided it _wasn't_ inappropriate for him and Blaine to have slept on the couch together (even though it didn't sound quite convincing enough in his head with the double negative). He and his now-engaged ex-boyfriend were well within the bounds of appropriateness in sharing a couch. It would have been different if they were in his bed or something. As it was, Blaine wasn't touching him at all, leaned away from Kurt in his sleep. They were friends; there were no romantic feelings leftover. Blaine was getting married in… three days, Kurt realized, since it was Thursday now. The rehearsal dinner was tonight.

To get out of this now, Blaine would have to go nuclear.

Speaking of going nuclear, Blaine was going to explode if he woke up to that annoying sound, so Kurt took the phone into the bathroom and answered it. "Hello," he said cheerily to Jonathan, not expecting to get a nice answer.

"_Of course_," was the rather sassy answer he got. "_You took our wedding rings _and_ my fiancé._"

"I didn't _take_ anything. I gave Blaine the rings earlier today, and you really can't blame me for him deciding to crash on my couch, considering he's so stressed about the wedding, which he's practically planning on his own, might I add, that he can't write music and he hasn't slept properly in weeks."

"_Look, Kurt, I don't know what kind of sad, miserable, lonely, pathetic life you're living out there in Brooklyn, but that doesn't mean you get to ruin mine. I don't care that you and Blaine dated for a long time. I don't care that you were Blaine's first fuck, and his first love too. I don't care that I will never understand the full history you have with Blaine. What I do care about, and what you need to realize, is that I'm marrying Blaine Anderson on Saturday. He will be mine forever. He will be Blaine Holloway-Anderson, and no week-long rendezvous with an ex-boyfriend, who broke his heart by dumping him through a rejected proposal, might I add, is going to change that._"

"Yes, I did notice your possessive personality. Nice engraving, by the way."

"_It's true_," Jonathan said flatly. "_Blaine is mine for eternity in three days. Property of Jonathan Holloway. So you can have as much fun with him as you want for the next two nights, and I'm sure last night was tremendous, reconnecting with my wildcat of a fiancé. Go ahead, I don't care. On Saturday, I have him forever, and that's nothing you can change, no matter how special you think your connection with him is."_ Jonathan hung up on Kurt as he would have expected, if his brain were still working and hadn't been blind-sided by Blaine's fiancé's last comments.

Jonathan thought that he and Blaine were having an affair, that they had sex last night. Considering Blaine _had_ crashed as his apartment without telling his fiancé, it almost made sense that Jonathan would think that. What blindsided Kurt was that _Jonathan didn't care_. And if he didn't care that Blaine was cheating on him…

Kurt could not dislike this man more… but Blaine was marrying him in three days, and if he wanted to be anywhere around Blaine, he would have to deal with Jonathan… and Jonathan's family, who, if his sister was any indication, were at least more pleasant than Jonathan himself… and their _kids_, because he knew Blaine wanted kids more than anything, even with an asshole like Jonathan…

It wasn't his business, Kurt decided as he placed Blaine's phone down on the bathroom counter and headed out into the apartment proper. He would make breakfast, and hopefully Blaine would wake up to pleasant smells rather than his phone buzzing due to his fiancé.

"It's not Jonathan's fault I haven't been sleeping," Blaine said quietly from the couch, obviously having woken up at some point early in the conversation.

"You practically said as much last night," Kurt replied, glad he still had steel nerves from being tormented in high school and didn't jump at much. "So you heard that?"

"Your side. He seems to have said something that annoyed you."

"I'm fine," Kurt lied to Blaine, purposefully not looking at him. It wasn't his business, and if Jonathan really was cheating on him… but it wasn't any of his business. "Any requests for breakfast?"

"Waffles," Blaine said with a grin. "You've always made the best waffles."

"It _is_ a talent of mine," Kurt said with a smile.

"Thanks for letting me stay here last night." Blaine stood up from the couch and stretched. "As terrible as my headache is right now, that was the best sleep I've gotten in a while. Maybe I should have turned to alcohol sooner."

"Maybe you shouldn't have to turn to alcohol at all to deal with your own wedding," Kurt muttered, mostly to the waffles. He had decided at some point last night that Blaine's panic was more than was healthy or normal.

"I heard that," Blaine said quietly. "Look, last night isn't exactly clear, but whatever I said… I was drunk."

"I know," was all Kurt said in reply. He knew that Blaine was the most honest when he was drunk, even if Blaine didn't know that himself.

"I love Jonathan."

"You mentioned."

"I'm getting married in three days."

"I know."

"There's nothing anyone can do to change that."

"Do you want to?" Kurt asked, not turning around to look at Blaine.

The tenor was silent for a few moments. "I might have to call in for those waffles another time. Jonathan will be wondering where I've been all night, and pissy from your phone call." Kurt didn't mention what Jonathan had assumed, and also didn't add that Jonathan didn't have a right to be angry about Kurt's reactions to his own poor attitude. "I'll see you tomorrow, right?" he asked hesitantly.

"Yes," Kurt said, dumping out the half of the batter he wouldn't need if Blaine was leaving.

"Bye," Blaine said. Kurt didn't realize Blaine was right beside him before the tenor pressed a kiss to his cheek and then left.

* * *

><p>Kurt tried to keep his mind off Blaine, Blaine's asshole fiancé, and what happened last night while he was at work, but he was definitely having trouble doing so. He didn't have anything to do until Friday except for the filler (he was having an easy week, work-wise), so it wasn't like being busy kept his mind from wandering.<p>

It was entirely possible that Jonathan was cheating on Blaine, which was just… horrible. Yes, Blaine had cheated on him, once upon a time, but that was different. Now that Kurt was able to look at the incident objectively, he could admit that Blaine's betrayal had been semi-justifiable. Any partner being ignored the way Kurt was ignoring Blaine would turn to someone else for comfort and closeness. The only problem was that Blaine hadn't brought up their issues to Kurt first… but that was a _long_ time in the past. Too long for Kurt to be worrying about it now.

There was absolutely no excuse for Jonathan to be cheating on Blaine. Blaine was… everything, there was nothing supplementary Jonathan could need, and Blaine would never do to anyone what Kurt had done to Blaine the first time. There was nothing Blaine could have done to deserve being mistreated like that, and it only cemented Kurt's convictions that Jonathan wasn't right for Blaine.

There was also the fact that Blaine seemed so hesitant about the wedding. Maybe he knew about Jonathan's infidelity, that was a possibility. There could be a past issue Blaine knew about but he assumed in his optimism Jonathan was done with that, or Blaine could be aware and just ignoring it because he loved Jonathan, or he could be completely unaware of his fiancé's (possible) infidelity. Kurt really didn't know what was worse. Kurt was willing to bet it was the last option though, because Blaine took cheating pretty hard, as someone who knew the adverse effects, yet could still understand the motivations behind it. Plus, there were a hundred thousand other reasons for Blaine to be hesitant about the wedding that _weren't_ infidelity, some of which Kurt probably didn't even know about, and what Blaine was feeling seemed a little much for a simple case of cold feet. Especially since Blaine was the one who wanted so badly to be married.

Kurt's answer and savior arrived, leaning against his doorframe with a smile and an outfit that gave him a headache. "Hello, my darling," Isabelle said with a smile. "Musing over the leather pants scandal?"

Kurt knew answering 'what leather pants scandal' was a surefire way to get a speech on what exactly had happened and why Kurt should know about it, and while it would probably be a good distraction and good for his career, it wouldn't be _helpful_, so he answered, "Something like that… except not at all."

"So it's a man," Isabelle said without a doubt, sitting down on the other side of his desk. "Tell me all about it."

"I already have," Kurt said with a laugh. "Do you remember the conversations we had when I first started working here?"

"About Blaine?" Isabelle asked. "Of course. I only remember the _name_ because of Pretty in Pink, but I remember every second of our first Thanksgiving together."

"I had no idea you were inviting so many people, but I know better now than to think you're not a social animal," Kurt said, and they both laughed.

"It's a fun memory, but why bring it up so many years later? You forgave him, and that's wonderful, but it's ancient history, 20_12_ history, and I want to know all about this new man in your life."

"You seem to be working on the assumption that the man on my mind is entirely new." Isabelle gawked for a few seconds.

"_Blaine_? Sweetie, I know I told you to talk to him and forgive him, but I told you that under the premise that you would move on, I-"

"Is, I haven't been pining after him for years or anything. I just… ran into him on the subway last week."

Isabelle sighed. "Sometimes it feels like New York City is the smallest place in the world, doesn't it?" she asked. "You can see the same people every day, no matter how much you change your schedule. So, you ran into Blaine on the subway last week, and you two are seeing each other again?"

"Blaine's getting married." Is was silent. "On Saturday." Further silence. "But I don't think he really wants to." The silence was killing him. "I think his fiancé is cheating on him." Was she ever going to talk? "He's a terrible human being, even his sister agrees." This was the quietest he had ever seen her. "Blaine hasn't been able to sleep, and he's planning the wedding almost entirely by himself, and his fiancé stole his bachelor party, and-"

"Kurt, I've known you for a long time, and I know what kind of man you fall in love with-"

"Is, Blaine isn't the type of guy that I pick up at bars, he's-"

"Just listen. I know you, and I know the kind of guys you fall in love with, and I know exactly how different they are from the kind of guys you pick up at bars. And if Blaine is really in over his head, if he's really made a bad decision and he really doesn't want to get married, that's a decision you have to let him make, because if you push him into it, he'll never forgive you. He's the kind of guy you love, so I know he's smart, and I know he's strong enough to make this decision even if he's scared, even if it's the hardest thing he's ever done. You just have to let _him_ make that call, because otherwise you're the bad guy."

"What if he doesn't make it in time?"

"Statistically, over half of marriages end in divorce," she quoted, smiling.

"That's not what I mean, Is. I'm not worried about his wedding. I mean what if they buy a house and have kids and build a life together… and _then_ Blaine realizes that all of his life decisions have been based on believing Jonathan's something he's not."

"That won't happen, because he's got an option besides Jonathan to consider, and I'm willing to bet he's been considering it."

"And what would _it_ be, Is?"

"He has you, doesn't he?" she asked, turning her answer into a question as usual. "He's always had you, whether you want to admit it or not. That's why it's been so long since you did anything but pick up guys at bars for stress relief. And as long as you neither turn your back on him nor push him into making what you think is the right decision, he'll make a good call. And if his call is this Jonathan fellow, then you need to respect that. Because nothing loses you someone's respect faster than breaking up their marriage."

"You're terribly logical, you know that?"

"It is one of my strengths." Isabelle stood up. "And now, because I know you and I know that you'll sit here wallowing in your thoughts about Blaine if I don't do this, I'm giving you a huge project due tomorrow. Come along." Isabelle walked out of Kurt's office, trusting that he would follow.

"Awesome," Kurt muttered, but he had really brought that one on himself.

* * *

><p>Isabelle's major project didn't give him one second to wallow at any point on Thursday (because he really had become one of those sad people who returned to their apartments to do more work… except for the fact that he didn't return to his apartment), and he woke up to a text from Elizabeth. The text proclaimed that the rehearsal dinner had gone perfectly, the gifts Blaine had chosen (she didn't bother to pretend they had also come from Jonathan) were very sweet, and the impromptu, drunken toasts would be posted on YouTube by noon. This made Kurt look at his clock and groan when he realized he was part-way into another workday.<p>

"I assume you're not in your clothes from yesterday for the fun reason?" Isabelle asked, again at his door with an amused expression.

"Your completed project is in my outbox, you evil witch," Kurt murmured mostly into his desk.

"I think you need a day off. I mean, the man you're in love with is getting married tomorrow. Go… do something fun and spontaneous and preferably non-Blaine-related. Get laid, go dancing, do anything but sit at this desk. Off, off you go!" she declared before skipping out of his office, like some sort of wicked fairy.

"I never said I was in love with Blaine!" he called after her, and it felt partially true. He wasn't acting the way he was because he and Blaine had dated, he was doing so because he _cared_ about Blaine, in a way that he cared about very few people in his life. Kurt grumbled a little more to himself as he stood up, packed his things, and headed for the train. He had gotten into the habit of getting on the 7 to Grand Central, and in his sleep-deprived, near comatose state, he didn't even bother to consider getting on the M near his office building. This decision, as it had many times in the past week, changed his destiny.

"You look… raggedy," Blaine said far too cheerfully as Kurt got on the train, and Kurt sat next to his ex without an argument. "I'm rather fond of my coffee, but I will offer it to you because it looks like you need it more." Once again, Kurt didn't bother to argue, sitting down next to Blaine and chugging most of the scalding-hot coffee without regard for his now-terribly-burned tongue. "Wow. You're… tired," Blaine commented, still smiley. "And in the same clothes you had laid out for yesterday." He cleared his throat and looked down at the ring on his finger before asking, "Get lucky last night?"

"Exactly the opposite. I got extremely _unlucky_, considering Isabelle saddled me with a major project that she wanted by today in the hope of… I don't even know what. I spent the entire night in my office; I haven't even been back to my apartment."

"I must now ask exactly why you are on this train." Kurt stared at him blankly. "What? Don't look at me like that. It's a reasonable query."

"Why is it a reasonable query to ask what I'm doing on a train headed towards my apartment when I spent my entire night in my office?" Kurt asked, barely having the energy to raise his eyebrows at Blaine.

"Because this train isn't headed towards your apartment. This _is_ the 7, but it's headed west, not east. I'm headed for the A." Kurt signed. Apparently, his asleep brain had a mind of its own.

"Where are _you_ going?"

"Shouldn't you get on the N and try to get back to your apartment? You look…" Blaine trailed off, probably in the interests of self-preservation.

"I'm sure I look beautiful," Kurt said dryly, and he didn't hear whatever Blaine muttered under his breath. "Where are you going, Blaine?"

"The 404," Blaine answered hesitantly. "I'm going to oversee the setup for my reception."

"I forgot that was this morning."

"I think you need to go to bed."

"So do you," Kurt snapped, and Blaine didn't have an argument for that. "I'll come with you. I have better taste anyway." Kurt leaned his head back against the wall of the car, ignoring the thought of how filthy it was, and shut his eyes, trusting Blaine to keep him awake and not leave him on the train in the interests of giving him time to sleep. That would _not_ be funny.

"I would argue with you, but that's true, and actually I'm rather scared of you when you're tired. Remember that day at Dalton when you didn't have coffee?"

"Not particularly, no," Kurt answered, but he couldn't help but smile at the memory. He had almost torn Wes' head off when he suggested that they stay in Warblers practice for four hours because the basses couldn't get the harmony right. He was about eighty precent sure that Wes had soiled himself that day, even though Wes _still_ denied it.

"Sure you don't," Blaine said with a smile, nudging his side. "I think you should go home and sleep before you turn into that monster again."

"I think if I really need to sleep, I will do so midday."

"And hopefully tonight?" Blaine asked, but Kurt opened his eyes to lock eyes with Blaine and grin.

"You haven't, perchance, forgotten about your own bachelor party, have you Mr. Anderson?"

Blaine rolled his eyes. "You didn't have to-"

"Well, I did. And I will be there and you will be there and Elizabeth will be there and all your bridesmaids will be there and while we did _not_ get you strippers-"

"Good," Blaine added, and it sounded like he meant it.

"I promise it will be one of the most memorable nights of your life."

Blaine smiled at him softly. "Thank you."

"That's what friends do," Kurt said casually, leaning against the subway wall again. This time he fell asleep.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I really have no idea how much it costs to live in Brooklyn, so that is a very rough estimate based on some prices I found online. More next Friday! Yes, the bachelor party is coming!**

**Reviews are Love.**


	7. Masculinity (Bachelor Party: Part I)

Blaine woke him up so they could switch trains, and again so they could get off the subway, and by the time they reached 34th Street, Kurt was feeling much more awake, but still yawned as they walked towards the 404. "What needs to be set up?"

"The dance floor needs to be cornered off, which shouldn't require my supervision, and the wall will be set up with our collage of pictures from babies to wedding. The tables all need to be set up, but I haven't quite decided on the design yet-"

"You've micromanaged _everything_, and that's what you neglected?" Kurt asked, and Blaine chuckled.

"Shut up. I have a few really pretty designs that I need to decide on, and that is why I invited you. You're an _expert_ on pretty."

"Now you're just flattering me," Kurt said with a laugh. "And you only invited me when I got on the wrong train coming out of work at 10 in the morning. You really can't claim that you expected me to show up."

"I… have no argument for that," Blaine said, smiling. "However, I am glad you came. And if I may ask, what exactly are we doing for my bachelor party?"

"Blaine Anderson, that is a surprise!" Kurt put effort into sounding affronted, but his attempt wasn't very good. "Surprise bachelor parties are a tradition, and not one that I plan to let you skip. Be glad we didn't kidnap you."

"I was actually rather afraid that you were going to. A certain, crazy brother of mine kidnapped a very unamused Jonathan out of our bed at four this morning and didn't let him put on any clothes before they left, promising me that I would _never_ know what will happen in the next twenty-four hours, but that Jon would be returned to me 'physically healthy.' Sometimes he really scares me."

"Jonathan?"

"Cooper."

"Can't blame you on that one," Kurt said as they turned into the 404. "I remember his acting classes. It's amazing that he actually lands movies now, and what is this I hear about him being signed onto a cop show as the main character? Isn't that his lifelong dream?"

"All rumor, I believe," Blaine said as he gestured to a large group of men that were wearing 404 maintenance uniforms and seemed unhappy to be alive. "I haven't heard anything about it, at least, and Cooper knows I will kill him if he signs anything big without telling me first."

"Maybe he's just waiting until after the wedding," Kurt suggested.

"Good morning, Mr. Anderson, Mr. Hummel," the receptionist said with a smile, typing rather rapidly on her computer.

"She knows who I am?" Kurt asked, looking back at the desk in momentary distraction.

"Yes, she asked the last time you were here. The administration likes to control who leaves and enters the building," Blaine explained away.

"Anyway, Jonathan's probably told Cooper how long your secret honeymoon is going to be, maybe Cooper's waiting to tell you big news until after that because he doesn't want to stress you out on your wedding weekend?"

"Cooper's very existence stresses me out, and he's my best man," Blaine pointed out as they rode the chrome elevator up again. "Do you think my wedding's going to be perfect?" Blaine asked, the normal kind of day-before-the-wedding nerves catching up to him.

"Honestly, I think a bunch of little things are going to go wrong, and I think you think _now_ that those are the important things, but they're not, and I know that by the end of the day you'll be incredibly happy, no matter what happens," Kurt said honestly, because getting married, in the end, was all about who you were marrying, not what or where or when.

"You should be a motivational speaker," Blaine commented, looking up at the ceiling.

"You're welcome." Before Kurt could say anything else sassy, the elevator dinged, and they were at the amazing place where Blaine would be married in less than forty-eight hours.

"Okay!" Blaine said, starting to hand out and give directions to the set-up team. The bar was already set up and they were already sticking up pictures of Blaine and Jonathan all over one wall, backlighting them with purple. "There are two designs that I'm deciding between, and I need to make the decision within the next five minutes." Blaine pulled out two more pictures and showed them to Kurt for comparison.

They were equally beautiful, which wasn't shocking because Kurt knew Blaine had good taste; all the Andersons did. The first design was individual tables, draped in white with beautiful lilac centerpieces. The purple on the table tied into the chairs as well, since they were draped in similar white fabric, with purple bows wrapped around the backs. There were flameless candles in the centerpieces, and the ambience created in the room was beautiful. The suggestions Blaine was showing him were definitely taken from the 404 website (which Kurt had checked out earlier), because it was obvious to Kurt that the room in the background of both pictures was in fact the room they were standing in.

The second design was also beautiful. Blaine must have designed the rest of the room so either would work, since this one was more spread out. The tables were rather simple, covered in the same white fabric with blue-accented centerpieces and the same flameless candles, but the chairs were bare, thick gold wire with white seat cushions that looked rather comfortable. The intriguing part of the design was the number of tables: three, at least in the picture. Instead of having many small tables, there were three long tables, each with about thirty chairs on each side. Blaine would probably need more seating, but if Kurt considered the design as a reduced scale, it was beautiful.

"Wow, Blaine," Kurt said appreciatively, and Blaine smiled.

"Don't give me too much credit, I stole the designs off the website."

"I can tell," Kurt admitted, "but I'm sure there were hundreds of pictures and options, and you chose two good ones. However, you do not think like a party planner, and this whole decision comes down to one question: how well do your guests know each other?"

"What?" Blaine asked, more of an exclamation of surprise than a real question, and Kurt waited for him to process. "Um, not very well, I guess. It's kind of a diverse crowd, with business associates of Jonathan's, and the Warblers, and my musical boho type friends-"

"Then I would go with the individual tables," Kurt suggested. "These huge tables are great for small weddings, where all the guests are intimately acquainted. In a larger setting, it just leads to people having no one to talk to, fragmented conversations, and awkwardness."

"I planned them so everyone would be near-" Blaine tried to interject, but Kurt stopped him.

"Blaine, trust me. Unless you're cutting down your wedding by about a thousand people, the individualized tables will be better. People will have more fun, and no one will feel socially awkward, even if they don't know anyone. It's easier to make friends in a small pool, such as a six-person table, rather than being thrown in the deep end of a very large one."

"Like high school," Blaine said, in what Kurt assumed was agreement. "You're right, of course." Blaine called out the instructions to the maintenance men, calling it 'Design 1,' and then turned back to Kurt with a slight frown. "I honestly thought you would pick the other one."

"Why is that?"

"I thought you would think it's prettier," Blaine admitted, sounding a little bit sad that he had been unable to pick out Kurt's option. He used to be fantastic at reading Kurt's mind.

"It _is_ prettier," Kurt assured his ex, "but it's not as practical for a wedding as diverse and large as yours. This is the more practical option."

"I really should have hired a wedding planner, huh?" Blaine asked ruefully. "I thought I could do it all by myself, and it would make my wedding more personal, but there's so much to do and there are _so_ many people and-"

"Blaine, you don't _need_ to hire a wedding planner," Kurt assuaged the idiot's fears before he could get in too deep. "You're lucky enough to have run into the best one in the city on the subway last week," Kurt said with a grin, making Blaine smile at his cocky attitude.

"But of course," Blaine agreed with a laugh. "Want compensation?"

"Blaine, you don't have to _pay_ me," Kurt assured him. "I would do anything for you."

"I…" Blaine seemed kind of frozen, and Kurt realized his faux pas.

"I don't mean it like that," Kurt tried to correct himself. "I just mean… it's your wedding, Blaine, and I want it to be anything you want and everything you've ever imagined."

"The same with my fiancé, of course?" Blaine asked very sarcastically.

"You know how I feel about him." Kurt wasn't sure if he was referring to a consideration for Jonathan's desires regarding the wedding, or wanting Jonathan to be everything Blaine had ever wanted, but his answer still stood.

"I do," was all Blaine said in response, and Kurt's stomach tightened a little about the idea of Blaine saying those exact words tomorrow in an entirely different context.

"Are there any other last minute panic attacks you need to have about the decorations, or can I go home and get some sleep before your bachelor party?" Kurt asked, trying to pretend like he had never said what he had just said and thus far failing.

"I know it's all very secretive, but am I at least allowed to ask when I'll be home?"

"After your fiancé," Kurt promised him with a wicked grin, even though he didn't believe that to be true, and Blaine looked suitably terrified.

"I think I'm more scared of a bachelor party thrown by you than I am of a bachelor party thrown by Cooper, and that's saying something," Blaine said with a visible gulp, and Kurt smiled.

"Don't worry, I can make Jonathan the same promise: you won't be physically harmed. Probably," Kurt qualified, and Blaine's eyes widened. "I'm going to go squeeze a week's worth of sleep and coffee into the next four hours, meet me at the Central Park South Entrance at two thirty," Kurt said, waving to Blaine ask he left. The poor boy looked completely shell shocked and still rather terrified as Kurt walked away. In reality, Blaine's bachelor party was probably going to be pretty tame compared to what Copper had planned for Jonathan (and Kurt had to wonder whether Cooper had met Jonathan, what he thought of the man marrying his little brother, and if those feelings would have any effect on how hard they partied until Saturday morning. Knowing Cooper, it was quite possible he was torturing, terrifying, and threatening Jonathan on Blaine's behalf as they spoke. It was a comforting thought), but it would still be memorable. Hopefully very memorable, maybe even in a way Saturday wouldn't be.

Isabelle's advice was still ringing in his ears, and Kurt had made up his mind to listen to her. Even if she was wrong about him being in love with Blaine. He was far, _far_ away from falling back in love with Blaine, no matter how much she thought she knew about him. Isabelle was crazy, almost as crazy as Rachel, something he had known for years. He only took her advice because she was far more experienced in men then he was, and that would always be the case.

* * *

><p>Kurt didn't get much sleep in his four hour reprieve between the events of Blaine's wedding (and he was probably as sleep-deprived as the Groomzilla at this point), but he managed to chug plenty of coffee from little bodegas all over the town, taking a walk around one thirty to help clear his head. After his little caffeinated jaunt, he hopped on the L into the city, taking the F and then the R straight to the Central Park South Entrance. On the subway, headed towards Blaine, he texted the bridesmaids and told them where he was meeting Blaine, getting enthusiasm from all of them, even though most didn't know what they were doing. Elizabeth and Kurt had planned the whole thing, because they knew Blaine the best.<p>

Kurt arrived at Central Park first, grinning wickedly as soon as he saw Blaine standing in the middle of the square, picking at a loose thread on his jacket absentmindedly. He was wearing jeans and black jacket, a colorful toque making him easy to spot, and Kurt pushed away thoughts of how adorable he looked. His hair was only half-gelled, probably from being pulled at due to stress, and the nip in the air made his nose and ears red. "Hey, there," Blaine said with a smile, giving Kurt a hug as soon as the countertenor was close enough. "Where to?"

"First, we wait," Kurt said with a smile, standing next to Blaine and ignoring the curious looks he was getting from the groom-to-be.

"You're not going to tell me anything, are you?"

"Not a chance." Blaine huffed, sticking his hands in his pockets as he waited patiently.

"Not even going to tell me what we're waiting for?"

"You'll see soon enough," Kurt said, and he was having a little bit of fun torturing Blaine. He deserved a bachelor party full of surprise and excitement, and even Barney agreed that during a man's bachelor party, he should at some point fear for his life. Kurt was starting with that one. "Just be glad you weren't kidnapped." Blaine didn't say anything.

They were only waiting for about five minutes before the limo pulled up. "Hey!" Elizabeth yelled from the sunroof, popping some champagne clumsily and spilling some over the side of the bottle and the side of the limo. "Who's ready to party?"

"Oh, dear God," Blaine muttered quietly, but Kurt didn't give him much choice before stuffing him into the limo with the seven bridesmaids, nodding to the driver. Roxy Music was playing, as a salute to Blaine's strange musical tastes, and it looked like most of the bridesmaids had already started on the champagne.

"Happy bachelor party, bro," Elizabeth said as she slid down from the roof, pouring Blaine's glass with extreme accuracy for someone who was tipsy. Guess she didn't want to waste anything. "And don't worry about the limo, this is all on your fiancé's dime," she said, raising her glass, and everyone laughed and raised a glass. "You want some Kurt?"

"I certainly don't want to be the only sober person in this limo," Kurt agreed, and Elizabeth handed him a glass. "Let's go!"

"First location!" Elizabeth hollered at the driver, who pulled out onto 5th Ave.

"Oh, come on," Blaine objected, not having touched his champagne yet. "You won't even tell me where we're going now that you have me captive?"

"It would ruin the surprise!" Elizabeth said with a grin, sitting down next to Rachel. "Drink up, you'll feel a lot better when you're as buzzed as we are." Blaine sighed, but down his champagne to childish cheers of 'chug! chug!'

"Okay, you're right," Blaine said as he handed her his empty glass for a refill. "I feel a little better."

"'Now stow the champagne and get out the frickin' malt liquor!'" Santana quoted, making everyone laugh. "Scoot over," she said to Michelle, sharing her bench on the limo with the three bridesmaids who didn't talk, all of whom seemed a little uncomfortable with the rousing party. Probably because they were Jonathan's friends.

"I really am scared for my life," Blaine said, downing his second champagne.

"Easy on the bubbly there, cap'n, we all know you get a little straight when you're drunk, and you're in a limo full of women… and Kurt," Elizabeth obliged when he glared at her.

"I'll be fine," Blaine said as he accepted his third champagne. "It's just bubbly, and it's my bachelor party."

"Fair enough," Elizabeth said, re-filling Kurt's glass.

* * *

><p>They made small talk all the way to their first location, Rachel and Tina enthusing about the wedding and Santana making them shut up when she realized the more they talked about the wedding, the more champagne Blaine drank. Elizabeth tried to draw Michelle, Cathy, and Kate out of their combined shell, but they stayed quiet and drank very little. Blaine didn't even seem to notice them. "Location number one!" the driver called out boisterously, obviously feeling the mood in the backseat, stopping hard to let them out.<p>

"Madison Square Garden?" Blaine asked as the driver zoomed off to park.

"We were going to do the Giants or the Jets, but then we would have had to drive into New Jersey, and there's no _way_ we're leaving the greatest city in the world during your bachelor party!" Elizabeth pronounced to cheers as Rachel pulled out the tickets, and Kurt made the mental decision to cut her off during the game. She was a little _too_ excited already. Maybe alcoholism ran in the family.

Rachel handed Blaine his ticket, his first clue as to what the afternoon held for him. "Rangers vs. Canucks?" he asked, and Kurt could hear the excitement in his voice.

"Like she said, we were going to do football, but then we realized none of us knew anything about the sport, so," Kurt shrugged, but Blaine grinned, giving him an awkward, standing, sideways hug.

"This is awesome!" Blaine sounded like a little kid, and Kurt couldn't help but smile. The tenor hadn't enjoyed himself enough in the past few weeks, and Kurt was determined to change that.

* * *

><p>The game was incredible, the Rangers shutting the Canucks out 3-0, and Kurt was pretty sure Rachel, Tina, and Blaine would have to talk quietly for the rest of the night, since they had all screamed their heads off. They were all drinking beer and laughing, Elizabeth restrained to club soda, and at the last buzzer they all drained their cups with relish.<p>

"This is _so_ awesome!" Blaine declared, and Kurt recognized the familiar tone. Blaine was tipsy, verging on drunk, and Kurt made a mental note to make him get some coffee when they went out to dinner.

"Yeah, come on," Kurt said, grabbing Blaine's hand as they fought the crowd to get to the jersey stand. The line was long, bordering on endless, but it didn't seem to bring Blaine down at all. He was bouncing and grinning and clutching his empty cup. Once the line had thinned out a little, Blaine bought a Ryan Callahan jersey, and bought Kurt a Brad Richards jersey, ignoring his protests.

"This way I'm the captain, and you're my assistant!" Blaine said cheerily as he handed over the money, completely uncaring of the fact he was getting ripped off. Contrary to the laws of the universe, Blaine wasn't talking quietly, and he didn't even sound hoarse from his over-enthusiastic participation in the game. "You _have_ to tell me where we're going next," Blaine said as he grabbed their bag, and Kurt caught him as he almost stumbled.

"Back to the limo," was Kurt's frustratingly cryptic answer, "and then to get you some coffee so you can walk straight. We have a long night ahead of us."

"But no strippers?" Blaine asked curiously.

"No strippers."

"Good," Blaine said, nodding slowly. "I didn't really want strippers."

"I know," Kurt assured him as he wrapped one of Blaine's arms over his shoulders and helped him out of the Garden.

* * *

><p>Blaine and Elizabeth were <em>both<em> restrained to club soda as they drove to their second destination, all the other bridesmaids much more adept at holding their liquor. "I can't believe you're marrying my brother," Elizabeth said, obviously still a little buzzed but getting the alcohol out of her system. "I never thought he would get married."

"Why?" Blaine asked her in surprise, but Elizabeth turned to Kurt instead of answering.

"Will we get to destination three early enough?" she asked him, and he nodded, having called destination three earlier.

"I got us special passes in case it's already dark. We'll get glow-in-the-dark equipment and it'll only be even more fun," Kurt assured her, and she smiled.

"Good. I'm glad I brought a change of clothes." Kurt nodded in agreement, because while Elizabeth was a sight to die for in her Badgley Mischka cocktail dress, it would be hard to play in.

"We need a change of clothes?" Blaine asked Kurt, too tipsy to sound concerned.

"Don't worry, Anderson, I stole some from your house," she said, holding up a ring of keys from her purse and showing Blaine what Kurt presumed was his house key. "We didn't want you to know anything about tonight."

"Well, if the next set of surprises is anything like the last one, I don't think I need to know," Blaine said with a smile, having thrown his Callahan Jersey on over his clothes. His head lulled, resting on Kurt's shoulder. "Can I at least know how many destinations there are?" Blaine asked, and Kurt tried to ignore how warm Blaine's breath was on his neck.

"Four," Kurt answered, because he could see no harm in Blaine knowing that. It didn't tell him anything about what they were doing, which was the whole point.

"Awesome," he muttered.

"I'm going to get some air," Rachel said, standing up in preparation for hanging out of the sunroof. "Kurt, won't you join me?"

"Sure," Kurt said, not feeling like he had much of a choice as he gently pushed Blaine off him and slid up to meet Rachel. The sunroof was pretty close quarters, but since she was wearing a Herve Ledger bandage dress, it wasn't like he could wrinkle it.

"Be careful," was how Rachel started their conversation, the wind rushing through her hair as they drove down 2nd Avenue. Soon the limo would be going too fast for them to be up there, but Rachel was obviously worrying.

"Rachel, I'm an adult, and I know what I'm doing, okay?" Kurt assured her, and a hand in his jacket prevented him from sliding back into the limo without wrinkling his suit. "What?" he asked her impatiently.

"And what exactly is it that you're doing?" Rachel asked calmly, still holding his clothing hostage.

"Following Isabelle's advice," Kurt said vaguely. "She's never led me wrong, unlike you."

"Kurt, I just want to make sure you're not going to do anything… rash," she said slowly. "This is his bachelor party. He's getting married tomorrow. It's about six years too late to have second thoughts."

"You think this is about the fact that-" Kurt started, but Rachel cut him off.

"I'm not stupid, Kurt, and neither are you. If things had gone a little differently six years ago, it's possible this could be your wedding. Blaine could be off suffering through his brother's bachelor party, while we shop and go to spas and drink margaritas and make jokes about your wedding night. You could be the one marrying Blaine tomorrow if you had wanted it back then… it's possible you two would already be married, and tonight would be an average night where you both collapse onto the couch and talk about how crappy your day was." Rachel sounded sad, and was looking at Kurt sympathetically. "I know you want all of those things, and I want you to have them with someone you love, but you said 'no,' Kurt, and that's a choice you have to live with, no matter the result."

Kurt didn't get the chance to answer before he felt movement around his legs and then Blaine was up there with them. "Hey," he said cheerfully, ignoring how cramped they were. "The driver said you guys should come back down, because we're about to get on the bridge." All three of them slid down together, taking seats in the limo. "Are you seriously taking me to Brooklyn?" he asked in dismay.

"I thought I would try to break you of your prejudice," was all Kurt said, because they would end up in three of the five boroughs before the night was over.

* * *

><p>Blaine didn't seem as likely to complain when they pulled up in front of destination number two, the driver parallel parking on the side of the road with impressive skill. They had stopped drinking on the bridge, and the aura in the limo was more calm, which was definitely a good thing. Kurt hadn't gotten kicked out of a restaurant since he was a Warbler, and he wasn't about to start now.<p>

"Reservations for Holloway-Anderson," Rachel said cheerily as they walked into the Peter Luger Steakhouse, known for having some of the best food in the city, and Elizabeth punched Kurt in the arm for the face he made at Jonathan's last name, attached to Blaine's in a way that seemed like ownership.

They were seated at a big table that fit all nine of them with ease, and the waiter graciously nodded as most of them ordered some form of alcohol. Blaine was convinced, thanks to a nudge from Kurt, that ordering caffeine would be the best idea for his current state of intoxication, and ordered coffee.

Elizabeth stood as soon as the waiter left, ignoring the fact that other people in the restaurant gave her odd looks. "I know most of us gave embarrassing toasts last night, but I directed the three minutes I was offered by my brother towards humiliating him in front of all the people who will be at his wedding tomorrow, and I wasn't the only one. So, I think Blaine deserves some toasting as well." She raised her water glass, the only thing she currently had in front of her. "Blaine, I haven't known you very long, and I honestly have absolutely no idea what you see in my idiotic, drunken brother, but it doesn't take much time to tell that you're a good person, and I wish you happiness." Everyone clapped as she sat back down.

Rachel stood up without even calling next, and Kurt braced himself for a long speech. "Blaine, I hate to steal what will assuredly be Kurt's first line, but we have a long and complicated history," Santana was already laughing, the bitch, "and most of it was caused by the alcohol that will shortly be delivered by that cute waiter. You have been one of my best friends and the only person I know that didn't grow three feet taller than me. You have been there through diva storm-out and angry rants and drunken kisses," Blaine had his face buried in his hands, elbows propped on the table, and Elizabeth was laughing so hard she was almost crying, "and I cannot think of anyone who deserves happiness more than you do. Here's to your wedding, your album, your tour, and the Grammy that will inevitably follow," she said, raising her glass. Blaine didn't remove his head from his hands, so Kurt raised both of their glasses in tribute.

Tina stood. "Believe it or not, Rachel, that was going to be _my_ opening line, mostly because there was a short time between the two phases of Klaine's relationship when I was so obsessed with Bling-Bling that I did inappropriate things to him with VapoRub when he was sleeping." Blaine snorted with laughter as Jonathan's bridesmaids looked horrified. "And I do apologize for that. However, we've been best friends for a long time, been through a lot of rough up-and-downs, and I'm glad to see that everything is ending well for you. Here's to Blainey-Days getting married!" she said, holding up her glass and making Blaine smile. He had finally come out from hiding.

"I have to ask," Elizabeth said before anyone else could speak. "Klaine?"

"Kurt and Blaine," Tina answered with a shrug. "They were together for so long-"

"And gave us all so many cavities through fluff," Santana added.

"That we gave them a couple name," Tina finished, not bothered by Santana in the least.

"Adorable," Elizabeth said with a grin.

"Well, Gay Winklevii Twin," Santana said as she stood up, "I guess we started being friends because we've been through a lot of the same crap, plus whenever I used to flirt with you I could make Hummel so mad he turned maroon." Kurt groaned, because these toasts addressed his relationship with Blaine way too much. "Bottom line: your family sucked, my family sucked, and now we're free of that. I don't give a crap about your fiancé or your wedding, but here's to being out of bad influences in the gayest city on earth!" As Santana toasted, the waiter Rachel was making eyes at brought them drinks, being bold enough to actually take the water glass out of Santana's hand and replacing it with her Delancey. Santana, being herself, downed it at the end of her toast and sat down with a snap to the waiter indicating she needed more. "The Kennedy package," she said to him, which was an old reference he still seemed to get.

"All right, Kurt," Elizabeth said when he failed to stand up directly after Santana, sipping his martini and wishing that he hadn't been put in this position. "Speech! Speech! Speech!" she started to cheer, quickly being joined by the other bridesmaids.

Kurt downed his martini before obliging, holding his water glass as he stood up just a touch shakily. Maybe he needed to cut down on the alcohol, too. "I don't even know what to say," Kurt admitted, and he tried to ignore Blaine's big, golden-amber-caramel-honey eyes looking up at him, the little smile on his face that meant he was nervous and insecure but happy, a smile he had seen so many times in so many different contexts. "I've known you for almost ten years, Blaine Warbler," Blaine groaned, making Kurt smile. "I bet you never thought you'd hear that name again."

"I was hoping so," Blaine muttered. "The last person who called me that was Hunter." Kurt made a face.

"Anyway, we've known each other for a long time, and I know we've discussed this before, but you were the most important person in my life for a long time. I remember years of Christmas duets and sit-com terrible Valentine's Days, Glee club rehearsals and hours spent mocking your terrible music collection. I could tell stories so horribly embarrassing for you that even through the ridiculous amount of gel you're wearing right now, your hair would curl, but many of us remember my senior prom, and no one needs to see that again." Blaine thankfully laughed. "It feels like a lifetime since we've been that close, but a few days has told me that you haven't changed all that much, and I still want you to have the best of the world. Happiness and love and the lack of an eyepatch-" Santana did a spit-take at that one, "and I'm so glad you've found someone that you want to spend the rest of your life with. Congratulations." Kurt sat back down to cheers, trying to ignore the fact that Blaine had chosen to look at the table when Kurt was talking about his impending nuptials, rather than watching Kurt like he had been while the countertenor was telling stories.

Michelle, Cathy, and Kate all gave a toast together, mostly telling Blaine stories about Jonathan as a teenager that had the whole table cracking up with laughter. The food truly was delicious, as they all discovered when it was delivered and every person at the table simultaneously realized they were _ravenously_ hungry.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: And once again, Friday flies by without me posting. Still, it's Saturday, so that's not so bad, and I will post some more of the bachelor party on Friday (and yes, it gets so much better). Also, there are quite a few How I Met Your Mother references in this chapter, and one joke stolen straight from Jeff Dunham.**

**Reviews are Love.**


	8. Let Him Go (Bachelor Party: Part II)

Eventually, Elizabeth turned on Blaine and started demanding that he give a speech, preferably thanking all of them for 'putting up with his drunk ass and saying such nice things' about him. Blaine smiled, trying to respectfully decline, but he really wasn't given much of an option at a table of seven incessant girls and an ex-boyfriend who was enjoying watching Blaine blush.

"All right, all right!" Blaine said, giving up and standing up. He had been drinking coffee all through their meal and seemed much steadier on his feet than he had been at Madison Square Garden. "First I want to thank all of you for being here, and for throwing me this absolutely farcical four-part bachelor party. Though I am aware that most of the credit goes to the man who knows me best, Kurt, and the pushiest of the women, Elizabeth… it's amazing that you managed to beat Rachel out for that title, it really is," he said to his future sister-in-law, who smiled. "I'm absolutely terrified to find out what else you have planned that tops this, but thank you. The last few weeks have been so hectic that I'm happy to hand the reigns to eight crazy people for a little while and just enjoy the ride." Blaine sat down, ready to end his toast there, but Elizabeth cleared her throat pointedly.

"You have to say something to all of us, future-Holloway, no generics." Kurt could tell that she wouldn't be happy until Blaine's toast to his own wedding party met her expectations, but Blaine didn't seem to mind.

"All right. Michelle, Cathy, Kate, thank you for providing me with blackmail material for the first ten years of my marriage, and I'm really looking forward to getting to know all of Jonathan's friends better once this crazy process is done. Elizabeth, I have a feeling you're going to be insisting on trivialities and bossing my husband and I around for the rest of our natural-born lives, and I'm glad to have you do it. I've always wanted a sister, and you're more than I could have expected." Elizabeth blushed, holding a hand to her heart. "Rachel, I really wish you didn't rehash our drunken mistake and consequent sober mistakes every time you give a speech. My graduation was bad enough." Rachel started laughing at that one. "You've been my dramatic voice of semi-reason for a long time, and I know I wouldn't have gotten through musical studies without you." Rachel half-stood to give a little bow. "Ting-Ting, all mistakes involving Vick's aside, you're one of my best friends, one-third of the McKinley Musketeers, and the reason I stayed sane through my senior year of high school. I'm happy that you're around for one of the most important days of my life, Tay-Tay." Tina smiled at the high school nickname. "Santana, it does not surprise me in the least that you're incapable of turning off the sass for my wedding, but honestly, I wouldn't want you to. It wouldn't be you, Auntie Snixx, without the snark." Santana grinned. "In all honesty, I must be a little masochistic for loving you to pieces, Satan, especially after the speech you gave last night, but we've been through a lot of the same things, and we've only come out stronger for it. Right, Sha-queer-a?"

"Oh, I wanted to kill that bastard," Santana said, and it took Kurt a few moments to remember that she was talking about Sebastian. Everything that had happened at McKinley seemed so long ago.

"Thank you for… being yourself, Salsa Caliente, and cheers." Blaine clinked glasses with Santana. Kurt had always found their friendship a little strange, but Santana had been there for him a lot of the times that Kurt hadn't, so he had never judged.

Blaine then turned to him, and a lump started in Kurt's throat before Blaine even opened his mouth. "I understand what you mean," Blaine said, visibly swallowing a lump of his own. "I don't know what to say, considering everything that's happened, everything I've put you through and vice versa. I… you know me the best out of everyone here, and I have to thank you for being the main opponent of strippers, because that's the last thing I want right now. You are… you're my best friend, Kurt," Blaine was starting to tear up a little, and Kurt could feel himself doing the same, "and I'm glad that we had a horribly stereotypical moment of seeing each other across the platform, right out of Slumdog Millionaire. I can't imagine this last week, or my wedding, without you."

* * *

><p>Blaine objected once again that he should know where they were going as they headed to destination three, and all anyone told him was this was the location where he would need his spare clothes, which made Blaine look rather nervous. It was good that Kurt had called ahead, because thanks to the shortening days of September, it was getting dark as they drove over the John Jay Byrne Bridge into Queens. "Where the hell are we going?" Blaine asked as he noticed they weren't headed back into Manhattan.<p>

"All we told you was that we wouldn't be leaving the city," Elizabeth said with a cackle. "In New York, that gives us a lot of options." The girls were doing their best to make martinis in the back of a moving limo, and Kurt was taking this trip to sober up a little. He had promised himself that he would follow Isabelle's advice and let Blaine make all his own decisions, a feat that would be very difficult when alcohol was added to the mix.

Everyone ignored all of Blaine's questions until they pulled up at destination three, being met by a man already dressed for the activity. "I'm guessing you're the… bachelor party?" the guy asked uncertainly, because it was true most bachelor parties did _not_ include so many women, unless they were topless.

"Gay bachelor party," Elizabeth clarified, and Kurt couldn't discern the guy's reaction behind the mask.

"All right then. You guys will be in field C, which is known as the most difficult and most interesting field, and you can change in the bathrooms over there, there's some equipment in those bins." He pointed inside the building to the general areas they were heading towards. "Miranda will be waiting for you on the field to go over the basics of equipment use and safety. Have fun!" the guy said before trotting off.

"Where the hell are we?" Blaine asked, and Kurt finally answered him.

"Indoor Extreme Sports," was all he said, which only made Blaine more nervous.

"To do what?"

"Something a little less girly than hockey and steak. Come on," Kurt said, since the girls had already headed into the building and he and Blaine were the only ones outside.

"What's more masculine than that?" Blaine asked, and Kurt knew the fear in his voice was more about how crazy the girls could be rather than the actual activity.

"Paintball," Elizabeth answered, already decked out in her spare clothes, wearing protection, and holding a paintball gun. "Get ready to go down, Anderson."

* * *

><p>The field was just a big room, with a plastic floor that didn't look too painful to fall on, and a bunch of obstacles that reminded Kurt of obstacle courses in middle school gym class. The walls were the white cinderblock of school hallways, and they were draped in dark green sheets that added to their camo, he supposed. Overall, the field was unimpressive, and Kurt would much rather be playing paintball outside a la The Big Bang Theory, but it was dark and they were in New York City, and he would have to make due.<p>

The safety rules were basic. Don't shoot at someone's head, this is how to work the guns, don't shoot people more than a few times at the risk of bruising ribs and such, and have fun. They divided into teams, even though they had an odd number. Elizabeth was the only one who admitted to having any experience with guns, so she was on the short-handed team with Rachel, Cathy, and Tina. Blaine, Santana, Michelle, Kate, and Kurt made up the other team, and they all shook hands before ducking into their forts.

As soon as the first shots were fired it was very clear that Santana had some experience with guns, and Elizabeth was out within moments. Rachel seemed afraid of her gun, but Tina and Santana were in a shoot-out within minutes, and Michelle and Kate ganged up on Cathy. Blaine was grinning like a madman every time he pulled up his visor, and that made the bruises everyone would have for the wedding the next day seem worth it.

* * *

><p>Paintball, everyone realized after a few minutes in the limo, was rather painful. Yes, there was adrenaline that kept one going while playing, trying to hit members of the other team and simultaneously avoid friendly or enemy fire. Once they sat around in the limo for a few minutes and the adrenaline-high wore down, they started to realize they would have bruises tomorrow. Hopefully nowhere that would be seen in their dresses.<p>

"You girls are crazy," Blaine said, holding a hand to his stomach, where Elizabeth had shot him particularly hard in the locker room before he had put on his gear, something she had been firmly lectured on by the safety people at Indoor Extreme Sports. "Destination four isn't another attempt to out-manly yourselves, is it? Because I'm seriously starting to wonder if any of you actually have uteruses."

"If I didn't, it probably wouldn't hurt so much," Rachel complained to laughter, holding a hand to her own stomach. Kurt had shot her with a barrage of paintballs, something he didn't feel remotely guilty about. She had almost hit him in the side of the head, a definite no-no.

"And no, the last one is not about being masculine," Tina answered, seeming the least hurt of everyone in the limo. "The last one is about music and alcohol and fun, and we're sure you'll love it."

"Fantastic," Blaine said, one of the very few times he had been sincere throughout the entire party. "How are you not _hurting_ right now?" he asked her.

"I did roller derby for a bit during college," Tina answered. "This is nothing compared to being tossed down on a wooden rink or over a metal railing by a bunch of aggressive, muscled feminists."

"That sounds absolutely terrifying," Blaine breathed, making everyone laugh.

"And you can relax about your prejudice, Anderson, the last one's in Manhattan," Santana assured him as they got on the Long Island Expressway. "You'll be back in your element very soon."

* * *

><p>"Greenwich Village." Blaine could tell by looking out the window, apparently. "We're like… ten feet from NYU. <em>Please<em> tell me we're not going to some crappy college bar. I'm already getting married, I don't need to feel any older."

"We're not going to a crappy college bar," Elizabeth assured him as the limo drove down 3rd Street through New York University. "We're going to a bar most people don't even know exists."

"Do I get to know the name?" Blaine asked.

"In 3… 2…" The limo stopped in front of their fourth and last destination, and Blaine raised his eyebrows at the entrance.

"The Village Underground?"

"Live music, dance space, liquor, no college kids. What more could you ask for?" Elizabeth asked as they all got out of the limo, which would wait outside and drive all of them home.

"I would say, 'I trust you,' but it's not true," Blaine said as they stared up at the doors. "It's really more like 'my life is in your hands.'"

"Pretty much," she agreed as she tapped the buzzer and the heavy metal doors opened for her. The doors closed alarmingly close behind them, effectively shutting out the sounds of the city, and Elizabeth led the way forward, down the stairs and into the main area of the bar.

The internet had not oversold the place. The atmosphere was dark and a little crowded, bar shoved over into the corner with only a few stools. There were some tables at the back and a hardwood dance floor in the front of the stage. The place was filled with people, some of whom Kurt immediately labeled hipsters, but others who just seemed to be having fun. The stage was the most interesting part, a few musicians up there setting up. Guitars hung behind them, against the brick backdrop, and speakers stood to either side. "Just so you know, this is, right now, at this very moment, there is some of the realist shit happenin' of all time on this stage because of these great musicians," the man in the middle said as he began to pluck at his guitar. "Tonight's a lazy night, and we're not doing anything special, so sit back and relax. I know you know this one." There was some cheering as he started to pluck out the chords for Damien Rice's _Cannonball_, but everyone settled down as he began to play. His voice was good, if a bit rough, and after watching him for a few bars, Elizabeth darted to the back and started to pull together tables for them. Rachel and Santana went straight to the bar, Cathy joining them. Tina stayed and watched the band play, apparently mesmerized, Kate staying with her. Michelle was already talking to a guy, and judging by the fact that Cathy was pointing to her and rolling her eyes, talking to Santana, it was characteristic.

"This has been a truly spectacular night," Blaine said, not moving, eyes darting around the bar. "I can't believe I'm saying it, but I'm actually really glad you hosted my bachelor party. Cooper scares me a little bit sometimes."

"To be honest, I've been hoping this whole night that he's out there somewhere right now, maybe in Vegas, scaring the shit out of Jonathan," Kurt said, and Blaine just smiled in reply.

"I know you're tipsy since you just swore, but want a drink? I could stay here for a while," Blaine said approvingly, and Kurt nodded. The tenor headed off, clapping him on the shoulder as he departed, before Kurt could order anything specifically, but Blaine knew him well enough to pick out something he would like.

"So, has he made you best man yet?" Santana asked sassily, drink in hand as she wandered over towards Kurt, ignoring several pairs of eyes, both male and female, raking over her Amanda Uprichard cutout-waist dress.

"He does have a brother," Kurt said, ignoring the spirit of Santana's question and focusing on the letter. "And it's the day before the wedding. If he tried to make any changes now, his head would explode."

"And you, oh devoted ex, would be the one picking up pieces of Blaine brain from all over the underground," Santana commented. Kurt knew what she was trying to say, that he had been far too involved with the wedding for someone who hadn't seen Blaine for years, someone who was once in love with him. The problem was she hadn't been around during the last week, considering everyone he knew had something to say about him reconnecting with Blaine.

Before she could get in any last comment, Blaine walked over with a tall glass of something red for Kurt, having only a beer for himself. "Here you go," he said as he handed it over, giving Kurt no hints as to the content.

"You're not going to tell me what it is, are you?" Kurt asked with a roll of his eyes.

"Small vengeances," Blaine confirmed his suspicions with a grin. "It's a Remember Last Summer. Just drink it." Putting trust in his former best friend, Kurt took a sip, humming his approval. It was sweet, and obviously not very strong, but it left a pleasantly tropical aftertaste. "It's Absolut Vanilia, strawberry liqueur, pineapple juice, and coconut cream," Blaine told him as the tenor chugged a good portion of his own beer. "Very bachelorette party-esque."

* * *

><p>The feminine half of the wedding party had spent four hours in the Village Underground, and the more drinks they consumed, the more amusing the sights around Kurt became. Tina, Kate, Cathy, and Santana had become groupies for the band, standing in the front of the dance floor to cheer and stare up at them in awe while they played, talking to them between sets and acting like over-excited teenage girls faced with… One Direction was the most current fad Kurt could think of, which was sad. He had been out of the music world for too long. Michelle had long since disappeared, presumably with one of the ten guys she had attracted by walking into the room in a simple, black, square-neck, belted, pleated Alexander McQueen dress. Rachel and Elizabeth were doing shots and declaring their eternal love for one another.<p>

Blaine had been up and around, talking to various strangers and getting to know the band and doing shots with Rachel and Elizabeth until Kurt pulled him away, reminding him that he was on the verge of being _extraordinarily_ drunk, the kind of drunk that led him to make bad decisions. Kurt had mostly been Blaine's ward, drinking light, fruity drinks and keeping an eye on the groom-to-be to make sure he didn't do anything stupid. Kurt was buzzed, but still capable of walking, and once he had convinced Blaine to take half an hour and drink some water, Blaine was still drunk enough to be tactile and ridiculous, but was standing on his own two feet.

Blaine and Kurt were currently sitting at one of the tables in the back, both sporting a beer and watching Blaine's bridesmaids have fun. "Come on," Blaine said suddenly at the tail end of _Eight Days a Week_, holding out a hand to Kurt. "Let's go dance." Blaine flashed him with a dazzling grin and Kurt found himself accepting the hand and getting to his feet. "We don't want to be the sticklers at my own bachelor party, after all." Blaine was still holding his hand as they weaved between tables and reached the dance floor, but Kurt was used to it. Some things never changed.

_Love you every day, girl  
><em>_Always on my mind  
><em>_One thing I can say, girl  
><em>_Love you all the time  
><em>_Hold me, love me  
><em>_Hold me, love me  
><em>_Ain't got nothing but love, babe  
><em>_Eight days a week  
><em>_Eight days a week  
><em>_Eight days a week_

Kurt and Blaine danced along as the song drew to a close, clapping in the right spots and generally having a good time. Santana and Kate quickly joined them on the dance floor, and they kept dancing for a good half an hour, the four forming a little square and generally just making terrible fools out of themselves. The band chose good songs to dance to, but they were all a little beyond coordination, and Santana was just sloppy.

Santana and Cathy just laughed and latched onto one another when a slow song came on, but it felt like more of a decision for Kurt and Blaine. Kurt eyed his ex-boyfriend, because the last moment they'd had like this had been at Mr. and Mrs. Schuester's first attempt at a wedding, and it had ended in a hotel room. That couldn't happen, not tonight.

Eventually, Blaine made the decision, putting his hands on Kurt's hips and keeping his ex at a reasonable distance as they began to twirl to the song, coordinated enough at least for the easy dance. Kurt let his hands rest on Blaine's shoulders, made uncomfortable more by the situation than the actual action of dancing with Blaine… everything with Blaine felt easy. But he could feel Rachel's judgmental eyes on him, and probably Elizabeth's, too.

_Well, you only need the light when it's burning low  
><em>_Only miss the sun when it starts to snow  
><em>_Only know you love her when you let her go_

"This feels weird, doesn't it?" Blaine asked, pulling Kurt a little closer as the song continued. "Reminds me of…" Blaine trailed off, like he didn't want to make the situation more awkward.

"_We've Got Tonite_," Kurt finished his sentence, and that night only brought back painful memories for everyone.

"I'm sorry," Blaine muttered, the first person who was brave enough to bring it up in more than a passing sense to Kurt after so long. "I know how much it hurts, how much you miss him, how much you love him…" Blaine pulled him even closer, almost hugging him instead of dancing, and Kurt couldn't help but melt into the embrace, the familiar feel of Blaine's arms around him and Blaine's warm scent surrounding him.

"Thank you," Kurt whispered into Blaine's neck, and even when Blaine released him from the hug, they were tight together, dancing properly, the way they would have if things had been different.

_You see her when you close your eyes  
><em>_Maybe one day you'll understand why  
><em>_Everything you touch surely dies_

"I was wrong, you know," Blaine murmured, and suddenly he switched on Kurt, wrapping his arms around the countertenor's neck. Kurt didn't argue, sliding his hands down Blaine's sides until they rested on his muscular waist. The tenor didn't elaborate, so Kurt had to ask. "I was wrong about us," Blaine said only slightly more helpfully. "On the train one day or something, I told you I was sorry we didn't end up together because we aren't the perfect fit." Blaine pulled Kurt even closer, so close they were barely dancing, resting his head in the crook of Kurt's neck. "But we are. We are a perfect fit."

"Blaine-" Kurt tried to stop him, because this conversation was taking a very bad turn. The kind of turn it wouldn't have taken without beer and vodka shots and the song and the low lighting and the lead singer's voice sweeping over the room, so soft Kurt more felt it than heard it. Which… didn't make sense. But he was drunk. And so was Blaine. Which is why neither of them should be talking like this.

"Are you sorry?" he asked.

"That we didn't end up together?" Kurt asked, not really sure of his answer no matter the question.

"That you said no," Blaine murmured, his breath hot against Kurt's neck. "That we broke up like that. That we avoided each other for so long." Kurt didn't know what to say to any of that, starting to twirl again and trying not to focus too much on… anything, really. Especially the feel of Blaine wrapped in his arms. A perfect fit.

_Staring at the ceiling in the dark  
><em>_Same old empty feeling in your heart  
><em>'_Cause love comes slow and it goes so fast  
><em>

_Well, you see her when you fall asleep  
><em>_But never to touch and never to keep  
><em>'_Cause you loved her too much  
><em>_And you dived too deep_

"Kurt…" Blaine whispered, and Kurt knew he wanted all of those answers.

"Blaine, you're getting married tomorrow," Kurt replied, looking out across the dance floor instead of down at his ex. "It doesn't matter." That, he knew, was enough of an answer for someone who knew him as well as Blaine did.

Blaine straightened up a little, removing his face from Kurt's neck and instead looking Kurt in the eye. Kurt met his gaze, having nowhere else to look. "I'm sorry, too," he said, his eyelids lowered, looking up at Kurt through long eyelashes.

'_Cause you only need the light when it's burning low  
><em>_Only miss the sun when it starts to snow  
><em>_Only know you love her when you let her go_

"Blaine…" Kurt said again, because Blaine's gaze was deep and sad and dark and a little drunk, and Kurt could almost see the wheels in his head turning. "You shouldn't be sorry."

"But I am," he said, and it happened almost before Kurt could stop it.

It wasn't like the first time. Blaine didn't slow or hesitate or give Kurt a chance to say no. He slid one hand from Kurt's neck to the back of his head, pulling Kurt down and connecting their lips in a kiss that was desperate and longing and all the things Kurt had seen in Blaine's eyes that he was terrified of. But it was also sweet and soft and made Kurt long for the times when Blaine had kissed him every day, the soft, reverent kisses of someone who couldn't believe their luck.

Blaine ran his tongue over Kurt's bottom lip, and Kurt couldn't stop, didn't _want_ to stop, thanks to the alcohol, and Kurt deepened the kiss, pulling Blaine as close as he could without breaking the laws of physics, giving up the premise of dancing all together. Blaine's kisses were warm and slow and heartbreakingly familiar.

Blaine pulled away eventually, eyes still closed in what looked a lot like bliss. "Kurt…"

"I'm going to go," Kurt said, releasing his ex-boyfriend. "This… this was a bad idea, Blaine."

"I know," was all Blaine said as he opened his eyes. "But you didn't stop me."

Kurt didn't say anything else, pulling away from Blaine and walking as quickly as he could out of the bar. Kurt walked up the stairs, out onto the street, and ignored the limo entirely, not wanting to wait. He hailed a taxi, rattled off his address on auto-pilot, and sat back, closing his eyes.

He saw Blaine leaving behind him, probably not wanting to deal with the fallout from his fiancé's sister and all of his closest friends. Blaine's taxi followed Kurt's for a while, but Kurt wasn't thinking about it. He hadn't stopped to turn around, but he had been able to feel Blaine watching him walk away. He also knew Rachel and Elizabeth and Santana and all of them had seen that kiss… but he couldn't worry about that right now.

Because Blaine was getting married tomorrow.

_Only know you've been high when you're feeling low  
><em>_Only hate the road when you're missin' home  
><em>_Only know you love her when you let her go_

_And you let her go_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: MWAHAHAHAHAHA! *cough* So, I will be out of state next Friday (and yes, I know it's Sunday, and I'm sorry), so I won't be able to update until Monday.**

**Songs used/mentioned:  
><strong>'_Cannonball_' by Damien Rice (mentioned)  
>'<em>Eight Days a Week<em>' by The Beatles  
>'<em>We've Got Tonite<em>' by Bob Seger (in the style of _Glee_; mentioned)  
>'<em>Let Her Go<em>' by Passenger

**Reviews are Love.**


	9. The Good Life

Kurt woke up hungover and remorseful, something he hadn't done very often since college. Blaine had kissed him, but Kurt hadn't done anything to stop the engaged man. He hadn't wanted to.

Blaine was getting married today.

Kurt and Blaine had kissed last night.

Blaine's fiancé thought that they had been sleeping together for a week and didn't care.

Kurt and Blaine were supposed to go for a spa treatment today.

He had about four hundred messages on his phone, from Rachel and Santana and Elizabeth and Tina and Isabelle and Blaine.

Especially Blaine.

Kurt rolled over and slept for another half an hour.

When Kurt woke up the second time, he stifled a scream in his first moments of consciousness. "What the hell?" he demanded in his next few.

"Hey there, Kurt," the man who had apparently broken into his apartment said with a smile. "Nice place." He wasn't being sarcastic, he actually appreciated minimalism… in certain areas.

"Do I even want to know how you got in here?" Kurt demanded.

"I stole Rachel's key," he replied, twirling it around with one hand to demonstrate. "You know, you're being awfully mean, considering how long it's been since I've seen you."

"Cooper, you were watching me sleep!" Kurt objected, throwing the covers off and getting out of bed, ignoring the twin objections from his head and stomach at the sudden movement. He wasn't _that_ hungover.

Blaine's brother just grinned at him. "Yes, admittedly, but I wasn't doing it for _long_, _and_ I brought you stuff." Cooper gestured to the aspirin, water, and breakfast he had brought Kurt with a flourish, and Kurt immediately forgave him for being creepy. Though considering it was a homemade breakfast, Kurt had to wonder exactly how long Cooper had been in his apartment. He decided not to ask.

"Did you return Jonathan in one piece?" Kurt asked, just making conversation as he took his first dose of aspirin for the day. He was sure there would be many more, possibly even more than medically advised by the bottle.

"Unfortunately," Cooper answered, sitting down on Kurt's couch, and that kind of confirmed Kurt's suspicions. "Can you honestly tell me you like that guy?"

"Not with a straight face," Kurt answered, and Cooper sighed. Kurt leaned over, squinting at the clock, and then frowned in Cooper's general direction. "Aren't you supposed to be picking up the tuxes right about now, with Elizabeth?"

"Our appointment is at 10:30," Cooper assured him. "I would wonder what Blaine sees in him, but we both know Blaine, and we both know exactly what the problem is." Kurt nodded. "Aren't you supposed to be at some sort of secret spa appointment with Blaine?" Cooper asked, checking the time for himself.

"Our appointment's at 10," Kurt said, "I have a little bit of time."

"And you don't want to see Blaine."

"What would make you think that?"

"He kissed you," Cooper answered promptly, not sounding upset in the least.

"He told you about that?"

"When I delivered a rather frightened Jonathan back to their brownstone, Blaine was still awake, staring at his phone. I, being the wonderful brother that I am, asked him what was wrong, and he told me about the incident at The Village Underground. He also told me he's called you a million times since."

"I'm not ready to talk to him," Kurt replied. "Is that why you're here?"

"I'm here because I hate Blaine's fiancé, and I have a feeling I'm in good company. Correct me if I'm wrong, of course," Cooper said without a trace of doubt in his accuracy. "Notice, I'm being nice. I have refrained from mentioning that you're wearing the same clothes you presumably wore to Blaine's bachelor party, which I also know you planned. Either that, or you need to understand the idea of comfortable pajamas."

"I was drunk," Kurt justified the fact that he had slumped into bed and fallen immediately asleep, resolved not to let his thoughts keep him up all night.

"I know. You let an engaged man kiss you." Cooper managed not to sound judgmental, but Kurt still looked down instead of directly at the older man. "He's not mad at you, you know. He's mad at himself, obviously, but he's not mad at you."

"He wouldn't have any right to be if he was," Kurt argued with the floor. "He kissed me, and he's the one getting married."

"Then why do you sound so guilty?" Kurt sighed, having no good answer for Cooper's question. "Look, I love my brother, but he doesn't always make the best decisions when it comes to _people_. And if the two people who care about him most on this earth, you and me, decide that Jonathan isn't good for him, we're probably right."

"Blaine is marrying him _today_."

"I know. Speak now or forever hold your peace, right?" Cooper phrased it as a question, but Kurt knew exactly what he was proposing.

"Are you out of your _mind_?" Kurt demanded. "I can't tell him not to get married!"

"Why not?" Cooper asked, and for someone asking his brother's ex to ruin his wedding, the actor was remarkably calm. "Do you really think marrying Jonathan is what's best for Blaine?"

"Of course not, but-"

"Well, then I would call that just cause, wouldn't you?"

"If you're so confident, why don't you do it?" Kurt demanded, aware that he sounded like a pouty teenager and not caring.

"Because I'm the best man, and that's just awkward," Cooper said, browsing on his phone. "Did you know there's a WikiHow on How to Stop a Wedding? That's… just _awesome_."

"Cooper, nothing I say to Blaine is going to convince him not to get married tonight."

"What about the fact that you love him?" Cooper asked casually, as if this was an established fact and not a shocking revelation. "Something that, according to the WikiHow, you should have told Blaine already, but I know it's not that simple."

"Cooper, you're literally talking crazy. You're crazier than Rachel right now, and that's saying something."

Cooper turned on Kurt with an unimpressed expression. "So you _want_ Blaine to get married? You want him to marry Jonathan and adopt kids and live his whole life dealing with a complete and total asshole for a husband? Maybe you _don't_ love him."

"Cooper, I've talked to him about this. I've already told him that I don't approve of Jonathan, and that doesn't change anything."

"Did last night change anything?" Cooper asked with a grin, knowing the answer.

"It was just a kiss. We're both adults. It was probably our ten-thousandth. So, no, it didn't."

"So, let's cross off the steps. Try to talk him out of it before the wedding, check. Organize your thoughts clearly, check. Make sure you truly feel as if halting the wedding is your only option, check."

"I don't-" Kurt tried to object, but Cooper just kept talking, as if everything he was saying was completely normal.

"If Blaine doesn't know you love him by now, he's stupid. And I don't believe in being gracious about Blaine marrying an ass, so… let's turn to the procedure."

"You're out of your mind."

"What are you going to say? Where are you going to sit? Do you have a getaway car?"

"I'm not going to say anything, Cooper."

"'Boldly but smoothly raise your hand and say, "I object." At this point you must immediately provide a reason why your beloved must not marry the other person.' Seems easy enough." Kurt sighed, because Cooper wasn't even listening to him at this point.

"There are a ton of purple monkeys in my closet."

"I _am_ listening to you, I just don't believe you," Cooper said immediately, still not looking up from his screen. "I think you love Blaine enough that you can't sit and watch him marry an asshole without saying something, whether you want to think about it or not. So, when you do say something, because I know you will, I want it to be eloquent. I mean, this is NYC, so you won't need a getaway car, we have taxis, and Sam is ushering and he's already on board with placing you at the end of a row-"

"What?" Kurt asked, but it didn't really surprise him that Cooper had already presented this idea to other people. He was excellent at spreading his crazy around.

"Blaine will have to flee the scene immediately, but he can do that. He has the guts. And he won't have to see over half the guests ever again; they're mostly Jonathan's family and business partners, after all. And most of his guests will be _thrilled_. Hell, some of _Jonathan's_ guests will probably be thrilled."

"Cooper, I'm not doing this."

"Kurt, we all hate him. The groomsmen, the bridesmaids, our parents, his parents, even his own _sister_ is against this wedding. You're the only person who has a hope of getting through to him."

"What happens if he stays?" Kurt asked, and Cooper sighed.

"Then I club him over the head with a Bible and you can still drag him away and have your wicked way with him." Seven years ago, that sentence would have made Kurt blush, but now they were seriously talking about ruining someone's wedding. A lot changes, far too quickly.

"Cooper-"

"Kurt, you are at a crossroads." Kurt groaned, because this was going to be one of the dramatic speeches that the semi-famous actor so loved. "You have two options. Option one, you don't say anything, and Blaine marries Jonathan, becomes Blaine Holloway-Anderson. They go on their honeymoon, have five kids, a house on Long Island, probably a bitter divorce, and Blaine ends up back in Ohio living with our parents because Jonathan has insisted that he doesn't need to work with an investment banker's salary backing him up. Blaine doesn't write or make music, and he's been living the last twenty years in misery. Now he's old and bitter and separated from his children and forced to live with people who hate him." Kurt's stomach turned, because he could picture exactly that happening to Blaine. "Or you can stand up and say two words, 'I object.' Blaine can walk out of that church, marry someone he actually loves, be a Hummel-Anderson, have three kids and a duplex in Manhattan. He'll write you a billion sappy love songs and make millions of dollars because he's so ridiculously enamored with you. You can design all his clothes for his tours and get more promotions in the fashion world, go to Fashion Week and network, have a successful career. You can send those three kids to Ivy League colleges and live happily ever after, growing old together on a front porch somewhere in the Hamptons, because right now you're both on the cusp of making just a ridiculous amount of money." Kurt could picture that, too, and he started to rub his temples. This was too much for someone with a hangover. "It's your choice." Kurt sighed, because Cooper made it sound so simple. "You can fix the mistake you made in high school. You and Blaine can be together again, forever this time."

"Cooper, I promised myself I wouldn't push him, that I would let him make the right choice by himself." Isabelle's plan was so much more logical than Cooper's, but it was crunch time.

"It's a little late for that, Hummel."

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Cooper cleared his throat. "You should probably get ready. Blaine has no idea that you're taking him for a spa day. You should go to the brownstone and fetch him." Kurt nodded, not wanting to talk anymore about Cooper's crazy plan. As Kurt stood up and headed to his closet, Cooper stood up as well, ready to leave. "Just think about it. I know you love Blaine enough to want what's best for him, even at the risk of your pride." Cooper left a piece of paper on the coffee table, hopefully Blaine's address, since Kurt didn't actually know where his brownstone was.

Kurt didn't say anything, waiting for Cooper to leave before rubbing his hands over his eyes. What the hell was he going to do?

* * *

><p>Kurt took the R into Manhattan, switching over to the 4 and opening up the note Cooper had left for him. Sure enough, it had Blaine's address, 1342 Lexington Avenue, but it also had another message. After reading it, Kurt could only assume it was from that damn WikiHow. '<strong>Make sure you truly feel as if halting the wedding is your only option.<strong> You most likely have a history with the person about to tie the knot, and you must be certain that your odds of winning him or her back are favorable and desirable.' There was a smiley face next to the quote, and Kurt sighed.

Blaine's house was between an Emmelle and a big building marked 1344 by the awning, directly on Lexington between 89th and 90th, prime Manhattan real estate. Kurt knocked on the door nervously, and when Blaine opened it his eyes widened. "Kurt," he said, more breathing than speaking.

"Hi," was all Kurt said, because suddenly his dignified proposal to go to the spa and talk there died in his throat.

"Come in," Blaine said, stepping aside and holding the door open so Kurt could walk into his house. Almost as soon as he saw the inside of the house, he stopped and just stared. He had stepped right into a designer kitchen, with all stainless steel appliances and granite countertops, alley-style but opening into an informal dining area.

"Wow," was all Kurt could articulate.

Blaine blushed and scratched at the back of his neck, a familiar gesture that meant he was embarrassed. "Yeah. It's a little… much, sometimes."

"How big is this place?"

"Four bedrooms, four-and-a-half baths," Blaine admitted. "It's four stories, plus a cellar. Each bedroom has its own en-suite, plus there's a library/office and a few living rooms and even an area that we hope to turn into a playroom." Blaine smiled, but Kurt's stomach twisted again. Blaine was already planning for kids. "There's plenty of room for a family here."

"How much did this place cost?" Kurt asked.

"Well, I'm not really sure," Blaine admitted. "Jonathan bought it without consulting me, and we agreed to split the mortgage. It's… expensive, I know that, but it's Lexington Avenue real estate." Blaine shrugged. "Do you want a tour?"

"I… maybe later," Kurt said, because he wanted to say no, but the house was _gorgeous_, and it made sense now why Blaine was so critical of his minimalistic studio apartment. He lived _here_.

"You're right," Blaine said, swallowing audibly. "We… we should talk."

"Actually, we shouldn't," Kurt corrected him. "We have an appointment at 10, we should get going. Grab your coat."

"Where are we going?" Blaine asked, but he followed Kurt's directions.

"Long before last night, it was decided by some people who care about you that you worry too much, and you've been incredibly stressed out lately. So, to prevent you from wandering around your empty house and stressing until your wedding, I'm taking you to a spa… and confiscating your phone," Kurt decided on the spot. "Just… try to relax. You'll feel much better for it."

Blaine nodded. "I… I should go say goodbye to Jonathan," he said. "He's still sleeping, Cooper brought him home late last night. I'll be right back." Blaine walked down the alley of his kitchen and up the stairs Kurt could see in the corner.

Having nothing better to do, Kurt walked down the alley also and checked out what he could see. There were stairs going up in the corner, and opposite them, hidden behind one side of the alley, were stairs down to the cellar. The first floor was open-concept, so Kurt walked through the arch at the end of the kitchen. There was a door on his left, presumably a bathroom, and a fireplace on the right side of the room. A glass door across the room from the arch Kurt had just walked through led out to a garden, by the look of it. This, Kurt guessed, would be the playroom for Blaine and Jonathan's kids. The thought made him slightly nauseous, so he walked back into the kitchen and sat down at their table.

Soon enough, Blaine came back down the stairs, smoothing his hair down a little from where hands had obviously been in it. His lips were a little swollen, but Kurt decided not to point that out. It wasn't his business if Jonathan was acting possessive again, because Blaine had probably told him Kurt was in the house. "Ready to go?" Blaine asked, picking up his coat from one of the counters, and Kurt nodded, following him out of the beautiful house.

* * *

><p>They took the 4 down Lexington Avenue to the 59th Street stop, and then walked a few blocks until they arrived at the corner of 5th and West 55th. The ride on the subway was mostly quiet, Blaine obviously nervous and Kurt still trying to shake the nausea caused by thinking about Blaine and Jonathan and their kids in that admittedly beautiful house. As they walked the eight blocks to their destination, Blaine started to warm up a little bit, chatting about the brisk weather and the ceremony and how excited he was. It was the first time Blaine seemed genuinely thrilled about his wedding, and Kurt was starting to put Cooper's crazy plan out of his head until he realized what was happening. Blaine was acting, even over-acting, trying to play the part of enthused groom for Kurt's benefit.<p>

"The Peninsula?" Blaine asked as they arrived at the West 55th Street entrance.

"They have a wonderful spa," Kurt defended his choice as the doorman opened the doors for them.

"An _expensive_ spa," Blaine said, and was this really about money?

"Blaine, aren't you always the one telling me that I have an excess of money and I should spend it?"

"Yes, but I was talking about your apartment, not my wedding day."

"Blaine, you're getting married. Just… allow yourself to be pampered. Trust me, it's wonderful. The women at my office come here all the time." Isabelle _loved_ the Peninsula Spa. Kurt was pretty sure she was a regular, so he made a mental note to drop her name. She was well-known all around Manhattan.

They took an elevator up to the 21st floor of the hotel, and as soon as the doors of the spa opened, Kurt felt more relaxed. There were teak accents and candles and Kurt could see whirlpools and massage tables and yes, it was going to be wonderful for both of them to be pampered a little after the stress of the last week.

"Welcome snack?" a woman asked them, standing by the door with a tray full of cheese and salami and crackers, fruits and vegetables, chips and salsa… so much food. Kurt took some cheese and crackers, while Blaine went right for the chips and salsa.

"They feed us?" Blaine asked, and Kurt rolled his eyes at the silly question.

"Of course, it's a high end spa."

"And you must be my specialty of the day," a different woman approached them as the greeter went away. "I'm Lila, and I've been assigned to your reservation." Kurt nodded, realizing this was the woman he had talked to on the phone. She was pretty, with soft green eyes and curly blonde hair tied up in a lazy bun. She also came up to the bottom of his sternum, even wearing high heels, but he could ignore that. "You personalized your package, I believe?"

"With some room for deviation," Kurt replied.

"Well, you should discuss, and I shall return in a few minutes." She walked quickly off over the smooth tiled floor, and judging by the way employees nodded to her, she was very much in charge.

"What are we discussing?" Blaine asked.

"What we want to do. There are steam rooms and saunas and ice fountains and a rain-forest shower, which is usually where people start off. There are massages and facial and scrubs and wraps and-"

"Okay, I get it!" Blaine interrupted. "What are we doing?"

"Let me worry about that." Kurt had planned for them to start in the eucalyptus-infused sauna and then cool off with the rain-forest shower, but after last night anything that involved them being alone and less than fully-clothed was… inadvisable. He waved Lila back over and started telling her what they wanted, confident Blaine wasn't listening. Even if he had been, he probably wouldn't have understood what Kurt was talking about.

"Fantastic!" Lila said as she scribbled down what Kurt was saying. "Matthew and Derek," she said loudly as a means of calling them over, "our two cutest masseuses," she said in an almost whisper for Kurt's ears alone, "will bring the two of you into massage room D."

Kurt grabbed Blaine's arm and steered him towards massage room D, being followed by their two (very cute) masseuses. "So, here's the deal," Kurt said as they walked across the main lobby. "We can talk when we go to lunch. For now, I just want you to relax, and enjoy the day of your wedding." Blaine nodded.

* * *

><p>Admittedly, Kurt hadn't anticipated how awkward it would be to have to disrobe in the same room, and really, why had he thought a spa day was a good idea when so much semi-nudity was involved? The masseuses had left them alone to done robes, but at this point Kurt would rather have stripped down in front of two total strangers than Blaine.<p>

"We can just… we'll both turn around," Blaine said, turning around as he spoke. Kurt did the same, quickly checking the room to make sure there were no reflective surfaces. At least, that was what he told himself when he almost got an eyeful of his engaged ex.

"You do realize, as good as this plan is," Kurt said as he shimmied his tight jeans down, "we'll have to get out of these robes to be massaged anyway."

"Haven't you ever heard of crossing a bridge when you get there?" Blaine asked, and Kurt could tell by his tone that he was smiling.

Once the initial awkwardness had passed, their day at the spa was amazing. Admittedly, the massages got slightly sexual, sound-wise, and Kurt was ninety-nine percent sure Blaine's masseuse had offered him a happy ending at some point (he wasn't entirely sure if Blaine had declined or accepted, that was how pornographic the tenor sounded). There wasn't much conversation, both of them enjoying being pampered.

After their full hour holistic massages, Kurt and Blaine were escorted out of the massage rooms and into one of the rooms that looked like a nail salon, with big comfortable chairs and foot baths and all sorts of amenities. The spa was full to bursting, but Lila was efficient and managed to keep them in a rather secluded area.

In their large, leather massage chairs, they were handed champagne, which they both used to reluctantly toast Blaine's upcoming nuptials. Following the champagne was a fifteen-minute scalp massage and a fifteen-minute facial cleanse (which was just to wash off toxins and oils, apparently). The main event was a full hour Biologique Recherché facial (Kurt ordered the healthy-glow package for himself and the executive man's package for Blaine, which sounded incredibly dirty when he said it out loud and made Blaine laugh). At the same time their faces were being lathered with more products than Kurt had ever seen in his life (which was quite an achievement, considering his moisturizing routine had only become more involved since high school), they were receiving the gentlemen's hand and feet grooming package. Essentially, it was a mani-pedi, but phrased so no man's masculinity could be offended (and they only used clear polish).

* * *

><p>The clock read half past noon when they had finished the first half of the treatment, and now Kurt knew they had half an hour for lunch, which is when he had promised Blaine they would talk. Lila whisked them out of their chairs to the Asian-fusion lunch, which took place on an expansive balcony overlooking the city. They were still in robes, but Kurt had passed self-conscious a long time ago.<p>

"Thank you for this." Blaine spoke first. "I hadn't realized exactly how much stress I was carrying until Derek's magic fingers made it all go away." They were having more champagne, because why not? Though Kurt was keeping a close eye on Blaine's alcohol intake for two reasons. One, he didn't want it to look like he was trying to get Blaine drunk on his wedding day, and two, they were there to talk about the last time Blaine had been inebriated.

"I wouldn't be saying things like that without prefacing them with your engagement. He might be standing around." Blaine chuckled, taking a sip of his champagne as they waited for the food to come.

"I'm sorry," was the next thing Blaine said, and that was what Kurt had been expecting.

"I know."

"I mean, that was… one hundred percent inappropriate, and I don't blame you for not stopping it, and-"

"Blaine, it's okay." Kurt cut his ex off because he knew how Blaine tended to ramble when he was nervous. "Can I ask you something though?"

"Kurt, no matter how nice it was, it shouldn't have happened."

Kurt chuckled. "That wasn't going to be my question."

"Oh," Blaine said, blushing.

"Are you having doubts? About Jonathan?" Every time Kurt had asked that question before, Blaine had avoided the topic or so vehemently denied it Kurt was tempted to say 'I think the gentleman doth protest too much,' but Kurt had a feeling this time would be different.

"I hope not," was Blaine's candid response. "I love Jonathan, I have no doubt about that, but marriage is a big step, and the closer we get the less certain I am."

"That's not a good thing," Kurt said quietly.

"It's just cold feet. I love Jonathan. Give me one good reason I shouldn't marry him."

This was Kurt's chance, his chance to tell Blaine that he loved him (for it was true, even if he hadn't wanted to admit it) and for him to call off the wedding without making a fool of himself in front of everyone Blaine knew. But Blaine was looking at him with big hazel eyes, wanting Kurt to be the only person in his life to tell him everything was going to be okay, and Kurt couldn't do it.

"I can't," Kurt said, and they both knew he wasn't talking about listing reasons.

"Neither can I," was Blaine's equivocal response. "And I'm sorry for kissing you. It didn't mean anything." That was a lie, and they both knew it.

"I know," Kurt said, once again addressing the subtext of their conversation.

The waitress arrived with their food, and Kurt and Blaine got caught up in a discussion about why all of the workers at the spa were female except for the masseuses. Even though the answer was pretty obvious.

After dinner, they were treated to a full hour body wrap in one of the massage rooms and then whipped off to the earth-toned Asian Tea Lounge for some herbal tea and a twenty-five-minute reflexology foot treatment. Blaine made several foot fetishist jokes while they were receiving the treatment, considering a lot of foot-related treatments were available, and he made the mistake of assuming the Chinese lady performing the treatment couldn't understand him, an idiotic and racist assumption. He got pinched a lot.

After their treatment and tea, Lila escorted them into a room full of adjustable beds which she called the private relaxation area. The beds were comfortable and they were provided with headphones and unlimited music and bowls of fruit and even _more_ champagne (maybe the spa owners thought ladies spent more when they were champagne-drunk).

Kurt was half-asleep when Blaine announced, "I have a song for you," hopping out of his bed to steal the controls for Kurt's music. Kurt barely woke up to say, "Fine," and the song Blaine had chosen drifted through his mind as he slipped into unconsciousness.

_Softly now, you owe it to the world  
><em>_And everyone know that you're my favorite girl  
><em>_But there's some things in life that are not meant to be  
><em>_I'm not meant for you and you're not meant for me_

_Here's to our problems  
><em>_And here's to our fights  
><em>_Here's to our achings  
><em>_And here's to you having a good life  
><em>_From me  
><em>_(Good life)_

_Softer now, you owe it to yourself  
><em>_And don't think that you will be left on the shelf  
><em>'_Cause there's someone for you and there's someone for me  
><em>_Like me, you'll meet them eventually_

_Here's to your lover  
><em>_And here's to my wife  
><em>_Here's to your children  
><em>_And here's to you having a good life  
><em>_From me  
><em>_(Good life)_

_Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby  
><em>_(Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby)  
><em>_Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby  
><em>_(Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby)_

_Louder now, you've lost all your pain  
><em>_You're married with children and happy again  
><em>_And now I'm regretting the move that I made  
><em>_Fatal mistakes are so easily made  
><em>

_Enough of my problems, they only cause fights  
><em>_Forget that I rang you, and promise you'll have such a  
><em>_Beautifully happy and painlessly romantic…  
><em>_Good life, from me  
><em>_(Good Life)_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Since I've been a horrible updater and writer lately and my trip apparently completely wiped my mind of all thing story-related, I'm going to post the rest of this story tonight.**

**Yes, the WikiHow on How to Stop a Wedding is a real thing.**

**Also, whatever Guest keeps leaving anonymous reviews on all of my stories with some rumor off blindgossip (it's called gossip for a reason sweetie) about Darren Criss and Chris Colfer (yes, I noticed you keep spelling his last name wrong, which only proves who far off your sources are), please stop. I will continue to delete your reviews, but it's time-consuming and quite a bit of a nuisance. Thank you :)**

**Song used:  
><strong>'_Good Life_' by Francis Dunnery

**Reviews are Love.**


	10. Wedding Day

Blaine shook Kurt awake gently, and Kurt grumbled as he was brought back to consciousness. "What?"

"Well, I noticed here in your phone that we're supposed to leave here by three," Blaine said, holding up Kurt's iPhone unapologetically, open to his schedule for the spa day.

10:00 - 60-minute holistic massage  
>11:00 - 15-minute scalp massage + champagne<br>11:15 - 15-minute facial cleanse  
>11:30 - 60-minute Biologique Recherché healthy-glowexecutive man's facial + gentleman's hand and feet grooming  
>12:30 - naturally peninsula spa Asian-fusion lunch<br>1:00 - 60-minute body wrap  
>2:00 - earth-toned Asian Tea Lounge + 25-minute reflexology foot treatment<br>2:30 - adjustable bed in private relaxation area: headphones, music, bowl of fruit  
>3:00 - leave spa<p>

"I didn't mean to fall asleep," Kurt admitted as he stood up off his adjustable bed, Blaine handing him a stack that turned out to be his clothes, freshly and perfectly laundered. "This place really is classy."

"Will you at least let me split the bill?" Blaine asked, and Kurt fuzzily realized that he was already in his street clothes. If Kurt hadn't been around for the past week, he would have mistaken Blaine's hurry for eagerness about his wedding.

"Not a chance," Kurt answered as he ducked into one of the empty massage rooms to change back into his clothing. Kurt paid the entirety of the bill (which was admittedly tremendous), and they headed down on the elevator and out onto the lively Manhattan street, their brief escape from the world over.

* * *

><p>From there the day went far too fast for Kurt. They both took a taxi back to Blaine's house, where Blaine was accosted by Elizabeth, who had apparently found a problem with Jonathan's tuxedo, and Cooper kept raising one eyebrow at Kurt, silently suggesting his crazy plan. The 404 was all set up, but apparently there was a flower problem at the church and the justice of the peace was caught in traffic in Washington, D.C., and Kurt had no idea how Blaine was handling all the problems that were popping up, but he seemed to have adapted a calm ease, addressing everything without blinking an eye. Kurt chose to think that was due to the spa day, rather than the idea that Blaine was feeling apathetic about his wedding. For the last week, he had been anything but.<p>

The wedding party arrived at six, an hour before the wedding, and the bridesmaids steered Blaine away (fully dressed and groomed and looking… stunning) before Jonathan could see him. They invited Kurt to ride to the wedding with them in a limo, an offer Kurt couldn't refuse, but after that, he separated from them. He was one of the first guests there, so he didn't sit down at first, taking a chance to look around the beautiful church. Eventually, Jonathan and the groomsmen arrived, and Sam, acting as head usher, seated Kurt about halfway back on the left, Blaine's side, and on the end (with a wink). Kurt shook his head and rolled his eyes, making Sam frown. Apparently, the groomsmen were also unanimous in their hatred of Jonathan.

People filled in around Kurt, Brittany Lopez being sat next to him with a smile and proceeding to talk about dolphin weddings for about fifteen minutes. There was a band playing as the guests were sitting, a wedding video-maker running around and asking for wedding wishes (thankfully, he never asked Kurt), and the room was filled with quiet chatter. Many of the men in the Church, on the other side, were older, probably the business associates of Jonathan's that everyone kept mentioning.

Kurt tensed when the music changed, the justice of the peace coming to stand at the front of the room (no altar, which didn't surprise him). There was a single guitar, and then Stephanie Berlanga stepped forward to the left of the justice of the peace and close to where the bridesmaids would be standing. She looked beautiful, wearing a simple black bandage dress with a v-neck and open back, and Kurt knew her song would be one of the prettiest moments of the wedding, a soft and acoustic version of a classic.

_There I was again tonight  
><em>_Forcing laughter, faking smiles  
><em>_Same old tired lonely place_

_Walls of insincerity  
><em>_Shifting eyes and vacancy  
><em>_Vanished when I saw your face_

_All I can say is it was enchanting to meet you_

At this point in the song, the ring bearer started down the aisle, an adorable little boy holding hands with Elizabeth. Kurt could recognize their rings on sight, and he knew the little boy was holding the real ones, on a traditional white pillow, secured by black satin ribbons, and he hoped for Blaine's sake that they were on there firmly and couldn't be picked off and swallowed by a small child. The flower girl followed, spreading blue rose petals from a basket that was being held by Cooper, who didn't seem too happy with his supervising job.

_Your eyes whispered, 'Have we met?'  
><em>_Across the room, your silhouette  
><em>_Starts to make its way to me  
><em>_The playful conversation starts  
><em>_Counter all your quick remarks  
><em>_Like passing notes in secrecy_

_And it was enchanting to meet you  
><em>_All I can say is I was enchanted to meet you_

_This night is sparkling, don't you let it go  
><em>_I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home  
><em>_I'll spend forever wondering if you knew  
><em>_I was enchanted to meet you_

The wedding party followed the ring bearer, flower girl, best man, and maid of honor up the aisle, all of them looking beautiful (Blaine had chosen tasteful dresses for the ladies and simple tuxes for the gents. Thankfully, he had also respected the tradition of the maid of honor's dress being a little bit different from every other bridesmaids'). Kurt wasn't sure who had more knots in his stomach: him or Blaine.

_The lingering question kept me up  
><em>_2 A.M., who do you love?  
><em>_I wonder till I'm wide awake  
><em>_And now I'm pacing back and forth  
><em>_Wishing you were at my door  
><em>_I'd open up and you would say,  
><em>"_Hey, it was enchanting to meet you."  
><em>_All I know is I was enchanted to meet you_

_This night is sparkling, don't you let it go  
><em>_I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home  
><em>_I'll spend forever wondering if you knew_

_This night is flawless, don't you let it go  
><em>_I'm wonderstruck, dancing around all alone  
><em>_I'll spend forever wondering if you knew  
><em>_I was enchanted to meet you_

_This is me praying that  
><em>_This was the very first page  
><em>_Not where the story line ends  
><em>_My thoughts will echo your name  
><em>_Until I see you again  
><em>_These are the words I held back  
><em>_As I was leaving too soon  
><em>_I was enchanted to meet you_

_Please don't be in love with someone else  
><em>_Please don't have somebody waiting on you  
><em>_Please don't be in love with someone else  
><em>_Please don't have somebody waiting on you_

At this point, Blaine and Jonathan entered from opposite sides of the Church, smiling at each other, and Kurt caught his breath because yes, Blaine had looked stunning when he left the house, but his face was lit up in a bright smile at his fiancé, and the expression only added to the look.

_This night is sparkling, don't you let it go  
><em>_I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home  
><em>_I'll spend forever wondering if you knew  
><em>

_This night is flawless, don't you let it go  
><em>_I'm wonderstruck, dancing around all alone  
><em>_I'll spend forever wondering if you knew  
><em>_I was enchanted to meet you_

_Please don't be in love with someone else  
><em>_Please don't have somebody waiting on you…_

Blaine and Jonathan joined hands as the song ended, and Stephanie took a seat in the front row. The band cleared out quickly and quietly, and Elizabeth deftly extracted the rings from the pillow, tossing one with great precision to Cooper.

Then the wedding started.

"If it were possible to begin this ceremony by gathering together all the wishes of happiness for Blaine Devon Anderson and Jonathan Cameron Holloway from all present here," the justice of the peace began, "if we could gather together those precious wishes of affection and our very fondest hopes and turn them into music, we would be listening now to a most inspiring anthem, composed of the most harmonious notes possible to produce… possibly written by one of the grooms." There were chuckles from the audience at the justice of the peace's comment, and Blaine blushed pink. "For now, we'll settle for Taylor Swift, sung by the beautiful Stephanie Berlanga." The justice of the peace gestured to her. Stephanie stood up and bowed quickly to applause before sitting down.

"Even though this is not possible," the justice of the peace continued, "just speaking of it should assure Blaine and Jonathan that our hearts are attuned to theirs in these moments so meaningful to all of us." Kurt chose to ignore Cooper's eyes boring a hole in the side of his head. "For what greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen each other in all labor, to minister to each other in all sorrow, to share with each other all gladness?" The justice of peace was very eloquent, and Kurt had to admire that he was either making it up on the spot, or he had memorized it and was using no script.

"Marriage is an act of faith and a personal commitment, as well as a moral and physical union between the parties," the justice of the peace continued still, and for the first time Kurt looked away from the man speaking and looked at Blaine. He looked… nervous, his smile tense and his hands white-knuckling Jonathan's. "Marriage has been described as the best and most important relationship that can exist between two human beings; the construction of love and trust into a single growing energy of spiritual life. It is a moral commitment that requires and deserves daily attention since no earthly happiness exceeds that of a reciprocal satisfaction in the conjugal state. Unfortunately, in the modern world, the word 'conjugal' is most frequently associated with quickies in prison." Everyone paused for a moment, like they weren't sure if the priest was being inappropriate or if it was okay to laugh. Thankfully, Blaine cracked up and answered that question for them. "The true definition of conjugal is the relationship between spouses, indescribable except to those who have experienced it. Marriage should be a life-long consecration to the ideal of loving kindness, backed with the will to make it last." Rachel was already crying, and Elizabeth didn't look far behind her.

Kurt noticed in the moment of silence that a violin was playing softly, and he recognized the tune as the instrumental behind _The Book of Love_, first performed by Peter Gabriel. The countertenor smiled to himself. Only Blaine would make a Scrubs reference at his wedding.

"Since we did not want this ceremony to get too religious, despite the beautiful and sacred location, the grooms will be reading from Scripture for themselves." The justice of the peace stepped back from his position of almost touching their conjoined hands, giving them a chance to speak.

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding tone or a clanging cymbal," Jonathan began, and the verses sounded vaguely familiar, even to Kurt.

"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing." Blaine, surprisingly enough, didn't sound choked up, but Kurt was sure it was only a matter of time. Confident or not in their commitment, Blaine had always wanted a big wedding like the one Kurt was sitting at.

"If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to the flames that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing."

"Love is patient, love is kind," Blaine began, and _now_ Kurt knew why he recognized the verses. They were the verses used at every wedding, and for a moment Kurt hoped Blaine and his fiancé were about to break out into the 30 Rock version, but no luck. "It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud."

"It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of writings."

"Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth."

"It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

"Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away."

"For we know in part and prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears." Blaine smiled on that line, squeezing Jonathan's hand.

"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me."

"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

"And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love," Blaine finished, and then smiled at his fiancé. "I'm glad you're holding my right hand, Jon, because the other one is covered in smudged Bible verses." The audience laughed, and even Jonathan smiled. It was around that point that Kurt realized both of the grooms, as well as the justice of the peace and the entire wedding party, were wearing microphones.

The justice of the peace stepped forward again. "Dear friends, we have gathered here today to celebrate a historic and extraordinary event. At the invitation of Blaine and Jonathan, we are here to see for ourselves their love and commitment, to witness their claim to their semi-new civil rights, to surround them with prayer and support, and to share in their joy. Every couples' love is unique, and now we shall hear about Blaine and Jonathan's in their own words. Jonathan," he addressed first, and this was clearly the vows.

"Blay," Blaine blushed at the nickname, and Kurt didn't want to think too hard on that one, "I've worked really hard for the last few months on these vows, watching all the romantic-comedies you love so much and trying to come up with a speech that matches every ending, but I realized that's not what you want." Blaine raised an eyebrow at his fiancé, provoking a few chuckles. "We already have what you want. We love each other, we're building a life together, we're planning for kids and college funds and a long and happy future together." Blaine smiled, but Kurt could tell from his vantage point that the tenor wasn't quite meeting Jonathan's eyes. "Today is beautiful and wonderful and I hope it's everything you've ever imagined, but all it's doing is making official what we've known for years: we belong together. I belong to you, and you belong to me. We have everything that every couple wants, and it's more than I ever could have imagined. To be honest, when you turned me down the first time," Blaine looked mortified at the story, and Kurt couldn't blame him (who the _hell _brought that up on their _wedding day?_), "I thought that this day would never happen, but fighting to stay with you was worth every second. So, Blaine, I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out." Blaine was starting to smile again at the quote. "I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes." The people in the audience not familiar with When Harry Met Sally must be really confused right about now. "And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's our wedding day. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. I love you, Blay." Blaine forced a smile, but Kurt could tell he wasn't happy with his fiancé, not one bit (Kurt refused to admit that eventually he would have to stop referring to Jonathan as Blaine's fiancé and start referring to him as Blaine's husband, but the idea was too weird to contemplate. Plus, exactly when during the ceremony did that happen? The end, Kurt decided). Who referenced their rough patch during his vows and then ripped off the last half from a movie that had been important in a _different_ relationship of his fiancé's? Especially when the ex in question was in the audience!

"Do you, Jonathan Cameron Holloway, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as you both shall live?"

"I do," Jonathan said immediately.

Kurt's stomach cramped hard when he realized it was time for Blaine's vows. He was tempted to just slouch in his seat, cover his ears, and fill in the words to _The Book of Love_ in his head (because the melody had been playing over and over), but some part of him had to hear what Blaine was going to say. For the first time, he looked over at Cooper, who caught his eyes and winked, rolling his eyes at Jonathan's vows.

"First of all, I apologize to everyone if I start crying," was how Blaine opened, making the audience chuckle. All the bridesmaids were in tears already, and this had to be the longest wedding ceremony Kurt had ever suffered through. "I've been known for my whole life to make impassioned, long-winded speeches when I'm feeling particularly romantic," Kurt chuckled at that, because he remembered the spiels, "but for the first time in my life, I find myself completely speechless. I have written so many drafts of this moment, so many different attempts at telling you how much you mean to me, but… Jonathan, there aren't _words_ for how much you mean to me." Blaine's voice was so earnest and so honest, it only confirmed for Kurt that Cooper's plan was crazy, and he resolved not to look at the groom's brother again during the ceremony. "For a long time, I imagined myself having a big wedding like this one with a number of people, from Prince Eric of The Little Mermaid to ex-boyfriends," okay, now _Blaine_ was bringing up things he shouldn't be in his vows, "but nothing has ever seemed as right as this does." Blaine squeezed both of Jonathan's hands. "I've never been this stressed, or this crazy, or this infatuated, or this attached, or this…" Blaine sighed. "There really aren't words. For a little while, I had given up on my happy ending, and despite my distrust and my doubts, not about you but about _love_ and _marriage_ and… and forever," Blaine sounded like he was choking on the word, "you brought that image back, made every moment of uncertainty and heartbreak, past, present, and hopefully not future, worth it. And I could not love you more for that, or for just… being you. Perfect, lovable you. You made everything in my life better, including me, and even though I can't articulate how much I love you, I'm going to spend every day of forever trying to prove to you how much I do. I love you, Jon." Jonathan grinned and leaned forward to kiss him, but was surprisingly stopped by the justice of the peace's hand on his chest.

"None of that until I say so," he said, the audience laughing at Jonathan's shocked expression. "Do you, Blaine Devon Anderson, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as you both shall live?"

Blaine swallowed, opened his mouth, and paused. And in that three seconds of pause, when time stood completely still and everyone held their breath, Kurt met eyes with first his ex, and then Cooper, and he _knew_.

"I do," Blaine said finally, but everyone in the room had noticed. Including Jonathan, who looked to be in a foul temper about it.

"May I have the rings?" the justice of the peace asked. Cooper and Elizabeth passed them over, and the justice of the peace held them up, one in each hand. "A circle is a symbol of the sun and the earth and the universe, of wholeness and perfection, and of peace and love. It is worn on the third finger, because of an ancient Greek belief that a vein from that finger goes directly to the heart, when in reality that is the exact definition of a vein. These rings mark the beginning of a long journey together. Wear them proudly, for they are symbols which speak of the love that you have for each other." Jonathan and Blaine stopped holding hands, each taking the ring handed to them. "May these rings be blessed so he who gives it…" The priest trailed off as Blaine started laughing. "May I help you?"

"Wrong rings," Blaine explained, switching the ring in his hand with the one in Jonathan's. "It's only funny because we had this issue earlier."

The justice of the peace swallowed, possibly annoyed but trying very hard not to show it, and said the ring-blessing through clenched teeth. "May these rings be blessed so he who gives one and he who wears one may abide in peace, and continue in love until life's end." The justice of the peace then stepped back.

"I, Jonathan Cameron Holloway, take you, Blaine Devon Anderson, as my friend and love, beside me and apart from me, in laughter and in tears, in conflict and in tranquility, asking that you be no other than yourself, loving what I know of you, trusting what I do not yet know, in all the ways that life may find us." Jonathan slid the ring on Blaine's finger as he continued talking. "I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and faithfulness." Kurt was tempted to snort. "As I place it on your finger, I commit my heart and soul to you. I ask you to wear this ring as a reminder of the vows we have spoken today, our wedding day. With this ring, I thee wed." Jonathan lifted Blaine's hand and kissed the ring that looked so foreign on it, the ring Blaine had picked, simple and elegant, the ring that looked so bland next to Mac Daddy engagement ring, the only ring that was really Blaine's.

"Speaking of in tears," Blaine muttered, wiping a few tears from his eyes with his right hand. Blaine turned the ring over in his hand for a second before beginning. "I, Blaine Devon Anderson, take you, Jonathan Cameron Holloway, as my friend and love, beside me and apart from me, in laughter and in tears, in conflict and in tranquility, asking that you be no other than yourself, loving what I know of you, trusting what I do not yet know, in all the ways that life may finds us." Blaine was talking just a little too fast for it to be normal, but he slid the ring onto Jonathan's finger all the same. "I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and faithfulness. As I place it on your finger, I commit my heart and soul to you. I ask you to wear this ring as a reminder of the vows we have spoken today, our wedding day. With this ring, I thee wed." Blaine did the same, lifting Jonathan's hand and kissing his new ring. Kurt chose to ignore that Jonathan hadn't worn an engagement ring as well.

"Now, for the blessing," the justice of the peace said, still standing back.

Michelle and one of the groomsmen Kurt didn't know, the two standing in the back of both lines, both held up a slip of paper, which looked like a fortune cookie, and simultaneously said, "Now for you, there is no rain, for one is shelter to the other."

Rachel and Wes, the next couple in the line, held up papers and said, "Now for you, the sun shall not burn, for one is shelter for the other."

Santana and Sam were next. "Now for you, nothing is hard or bad, for all the…" Unfortunately, there were many twenty-somethings at the wedding who snickered at the phrase 'nothing is hard' like five-year-olds, and they quickly edited, "_difficulty_ and badness is taken by one for the other." Blaine was looking at the floor rather than at his fiancé.

Cathy and another one of Jonathan's groomsmen, "Now for you, there is no night, for one is light to the other."

Tina and another one of Jonathan's groomsmen (Kurt chose to ignore that he had monopolized the wedding party), "Now for you, the snow has ended always, for one is protection for the other."

Kate and yet _another _one of Jonathan's groomsmen, "It is that way, from now on, and now there is comfort." As much as the blessing was annoying Kurt, he had to admit that it was cool, going from back to front on both sides of the couple, all the wedding party getting to participate.

The last two to go were Elizabeth and Cooper. "Now, forever, there is no loneliness." Cooper smiled supportively at his brother, who looked nervous again, before looking urgently at Kurt.

"If any of you can show just cause why this couple should not lawfully be joined together in supposedly-unholy matrimony," _oh God_, people were laughing at the justice of the peace's joke, but Kurt felt nauseous, "speak now, or forever hold your peace."

* * *

><p><strong>Songs usedmentioned:  
><strong>'_Enchanted_' by Taylor Swift (Stephanie Berlanga is a real person who sang a real cover on YouTube that I happen to like)  
>'<em>The Book of Love<em>' by Peter Gabriel

**Reviews are Love.**


	11. Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

"If any of you can show just cause why this couple should not lawfully be joined together in supposedly-unholy matrimony, speak now, or forever hold your peace," the justice of the peace had just said, and there was silence. To Kurt, it sounded like he was speaking underwater.

It was now or never.

Speak now or forever hold his peace.

Kurt was standing before he could even think about it, and he could barely hear the gasps from the other members of the audience or see the horrified looks, though he did notice Cooper's victorious gesture. He didn't look at Cooper, he didn't look at the justice of the peace, he didn't look at Jonathan.

He only had eyes for Blaine.

"Blaine, don't get married." Despite the first outbreak of shock, the audience was silent as Kurt spoke, and he clenched his hands to prevent them from shaking. "You need to hear me. You know I'm not the type of person to ruin a wedding, I love them too much, but you're marrying the wrong guy, and I think you know it. I think you've known it for a while, and you've been too scared to admit it, even to yourself." Kurt could feel himself tearing up as he spoke. Blaine looked shocked, but his eyes were soft as they met Kurt's. "And… I love you too much to let you make the biggest mistake of your life by marrying Jonathan." Blaine looked floored, and touched, and he took a deep breath. Kurt stepped out of his row, standing in the middle of the aisle, and outstretched a hand to Blaine. "I love you. Come with me. Don't marry him."

There were about two endless seconds of silence before Blaine looked at Jonathan, and just when Kurt was ready to run out of the room and never speak to anyone he knew again, Blaine bit his lip, stepped down from the platform, and walked down the aisle to Kurt, taking the proffered hand. There were gasps and yells and some cussing from Jonathan that came out the speakers, but Blaine held Kurt's hand tightly, and they rushed out of the wedding together.

When the heavy doors of Saint Patrick's shut behind them, there was silence. Blaine didn't let go of Kurt's hand, but he also didn't say anything. Kurt hailed a cab with a wave. Blaine and Kurt climbed in. "Where are you headed?" the driver asked, thankfully not asking about their attire.

"404 10th Avenue," Blaine replied before the wedding-ruiner could say anything, the first time he had spoken in what felt like forever. Kurt didn't ask him why they were headed to the reception hall, just accepted it and stayed quiet as the cabbie pulled out from the curb. Blaine was still holding his hand.

"I think we ruined Stephanie's chance at starting a music career tonight," Kurt tried horribly to joke, because the silence in the cab was killing him. Only Blaine's hand confirmed that he was really there.

"I think I ruined everything," Blaine whispered, and that killed the conversation.

The cab driver dropped them off directly in front of the 404, Kurt paying, and Blaine pulled Kurt inside without explaining to him why they were there, or even talking to him. "Hello, Mr. Holloway-Anderson!" the receptionist said cheerily, then noticed Kurt and stopped dead in her tracks before she could say anything worse. Blaine shot her a death glare and then continued upstairs.

The reception hall was entirely set up when they got there, and it looked gorgeous. But the walls were covered with pictures of him and Jonathan, many of them together, so Blaine killed most of the lights, leaving on only the ones behind the bar. He let go of Kurt's hand and started to pour himself a drink. "Want one?" he asked Kurt, who nodded, being hit fully with what he had just done. He had just stopped a wedding, ruined Blaine's marriage before it began, and turned Blaine's world upside down in the process. Blaine poured two, handed Kurt one, and then put the bottle back. Instead of settling at a bar stool, like Kurt had done, he walked over to the wall, leaning against it as he slumped to the floor, barely lit by the lights from the bar. Kurt abandoned his stool, crossing the room to sit next to him on the floor. It wasn't actually that uncomfortable.

"Blaine, I-"

"Drink," Blaine interrupted him, swallowing down his own drink in one gulp, and once Kurt had done the same, he spoke again. "So. How long?"

"Cooper came to my apartment this morning and asked me to do it," Kurt explained. "I actually decided when you paused."

"Right before 'I do,'" Blaine confirmed with a nod. "I can't _believe_ I did that." Blaine closed his eyes with a sigh and leaned his head back against the wall as he spoke.

"Paused?"

"Walked out of my wedding."

"Right." Kurt was kind of wishing he had another drink. "Why are we here?"

"Figured we would be left alone. My phone and keys and wallet are still at the church, and I don't want to be found by anyone." They lapsed back into silence, and Kurt was seriously considering digging that bottle back out. Whatever it was, it had been good, and steadied him. "I know you've been planning this since you met Jonathan," Blaine said, breaking the silence and disproving Kurt's original theory that Blaine had been clueless. "Why else would I have given you Elizabeth's last name?" Blaine sounded ashamed of himself.

"Blaine, if you were unhappy, why didn't you just tell someone? Tell _Jonathan_? Preferably before your wedding." Blaine chuckled and closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the wall.

"As you might have noticed, Jonathan's not the easiest person to talk to sometimes." Suddenly, Blaine groaned and put his head in his hands. "God, what am I going to do?" he exclaimed. Kurt put a hand on his back, looking out at the polished white floors, not knowing what else to do. "I just… I just gave up what I've been building for _years_. And you know what the sick part is?" Kurt waited for an explanation, an answer to the rhetorical question, but he realized Blaine was looking at him like he expected him to respond. Kurt shook his head. "I don't regret it for a second." There was a moment of tension, and then Blaine suddenly lunged forward and kissed him, warm and sweet and a little desperate, just like their kiss at the Village Underground.

"I'm glad," Kurt said once Blaine had pulled away.

"So, what do we do now?" Blaine asked, so close Kurt could feel his breath on his lips. Suddenly, Kurt's phone buzzed. "Don't answer it," Blaine suggested.

"It's Cooper," Kurt explained as he opened the text.

From: Cooper  
>''<strong>Enjoy life with your stolen bride or groom. <strong>Be cautious, however, as someone who is likely to walk from a wedding may be afraid of commitment and insecure in relationships. This could pose problems for your relationship.' _Yeah, right ;)_'

Kurt started laughing. "What?" Blaine asked, peering at his screen. "What does that mean?"

"It's from the WikiHow on How to Stop a Wedding," Kurt explained.

"They have that?" Blaine asked, smiling for the first time since they got in the cab.

"Sadly," Kurt said, smiling in return.

"That _is_ good advice. The first part, anyway."

"I agree."

"So, now what?"

"Did you leave the wedding because you didn't want to marry _Jonathan_ or…" Kurt let his question trail off, hoping the runaway groom would fill in the blank, but Blaine raised an eyebrow at him.

"Or…"

"Or because you want to marry _me_?" Kurt asked, saying the words he had specifically not included in his objection for fear that they were just one step too far.

"Both," Blaine answered, giving him a quick peck, "but I think we have a little bit of life-sorting to do first."

"Like what?"

"Like what happens now." Blaine was very persistent.

"Now…" Kurt said, thinking it through. "Now, you leave your brownstone and I leave Brooklyn, and we get a condo or house together in Manhattan." Because together, they really did have the money. Maybe not for Lexington Avenue, but for a nice house.

Blaine smiled. "With room for kids?"

"Absolutely," Kurt replied. "All the wedding gifts get sent back, you and Jonathan go half-and-half on the expense of the wedding and reception that never happened, you two say goodbye, if you want to," Blaine looked terrified by the prospect, so Kurt didn't push it, "you go on tour with Florence + the Machine, put out an album, and start writing again. I see if I can stop being such a workaholic and spend a little bit of time with my…" Kurt trailed off, because what did he call someone who had left a wedding for him?

"Boyfriend," Blaine filled in, "for now."

"For now," Kurt agreed, sneaking a glance at Blaine's left hand.

"Right, these." Blaine took off his Mac Daddy engagement and new wedding rings, placing them on the floor and revealing the tan line on his finger. "I should probably give these back to him."

"That looks much better," Kurt said, taking Blaine's bare left hand.

"It looks _terrible_," Blaine argued, giving Kurt a kiss on the nose. "Maybe soon, I'll have something else to cover that tan line with."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, _really_," Blaine said, giving Kurt another kiss. "I certainly hope so."

"Me too," Kurt said with a laugh.

"What else do we do?" Blaine asked, but that one sounded like more banter, and Blaine was smiling.

"We get married," Kurt said, making Blaine smile some more, "be the Hummel-Andersons, have three kids and a duplex in Manhattan. You write me a billion sappy love songs and make millions of dollars because you're so ridiculously enamored with me. I design all the clothes for your tours and get promotions in the fashion world, go to Fashion Week and network, have a successful career. We send those three kids to Ivy League colleges, if that's what they want, and we live happily ever after, growing old together on a front porch somewhere in the Hamptons because we will make just a ridiculous amount of money."

Blaine laughed and kissed him. "That is quite a speech for you, Mr. Laconic."

"I stole it from Cooper," Kurt admitted.

"I promise I will love you even when you're old and wrinkly," Blaine said sweetly, but Kurt scoffed.

"I may get old, but I will _never_ be wrinkly. You've seen my moisturizing techniques." Blaine laughed and kissed him again. He couldn't seem to stop touching Kurt, not that the countertenor minded at all.

"As for me writing you a billion sappy love songs, can I start right now?" Blaine asked, and Kurt raised an eyebrow.

"Off the top of your head?"

"_No_," Blaine said with a laugh. "I've been writing this for the last week, since we ran into each other. When you rescued me. It's the first song I've written in… a long time."

"Then sing away. I hope you've gotten better at serenading since high school," Kurt said with a grand flourish. Blaine wrapped Kurt in a bear hug, readjusting them until Kurt was seated between his legs, Blaine's arms wrapped around his torso, Kurt's head lolling on his shoulder.

"Oh, hush," Blaine said with a chuckle, and then paused, probably reconsidering his song choice. "The studio version of this will probably be a little more upbeat," was how Blaine prefaced his song.

"I don't care if this is terrible, this will be our wedding song," Kurt promised him.

"I love you," Blaine muttered, the first time he had said those three little words in years, "but I don't think this will make the best wedding song."

"I love you, too, and I don't care," Kurt insisted, and Blaine kissed him before he started singing.

_I need a sign to let me know you're here  
><em>_All of these lines are being crossed over the atmosphere  
><em>_I need to know that things are gonna look up  
><em>'_Cause I feel us drowning in a sea spilled from a cup_

_When there's no place safe and no safe place to put my head  
><em>_When you can feel the world shake from the words that are said  
><em>

_And I'm calling all angels  
><em>_And I'm calling all you angels_

_And I won't give up, if you don't give up  
><em>_I won't give up, if you don't give up_

_I need a sign to let me know you're here  
><em>'_Cause my TV set just keeps it all from being clear  
><em>_I want a reason for the way things have to be  
><em>_I need a hand to help build up some kind of hope inside of me_

_And I'm calling all angels  
><em>_And I'm calling all you angels_

_When children have to play inside, so they don't disappear  
><em>_While private eyes solve marriage lies 'cause we don't talk for years  
><em>_And football teams are kissing queens and losing sight of having dreams  
><em>_In a world where what we want is only what we want until it's ours_

_And I'm calling all angels  
><em>_And I'm calling all you angels  
><em>_Calling all you angels_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Thank you all for not giving up on me as I took forever to update this story, but this is the end! Yay! I hope you all enjoyed, and thanks for all the reviewing and support.**

**Song used:  
><strong>'_Calling All Angels_' by Train

**Reviews are Love.**


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